Search - Friends of Dean Martinez :: Retrograde

Enchanted cinematic soundscape...

06/03/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bill Elm (Giant Sand) plays the steel guitar that gives "Retrograde" its enchanted cinematic soundscape quality. Perhaps akin to Clara Rockmore's theremin, Elm's steel guitar acts as both lead guitar and voice on the instrumental classics. Many of the songs have a distinct Southwestern flavor. This music is sweet and dreamy, sometimes melancholic, and more romantic and suspenseful than the soundtrack to "Twin Peaks" or Ennio Morricone spaghetti western music. But don't let anybody try to convince you that this is easy listening; Friends of Dean Martinez (originally "Friends of Dean Martin, in hommage to the late, great lounge boozer) will keep you guessing (and dancing;) there's some real swingin' numbers here, even a bossa nova and a Pink Floyd tune!"

One of my all-time favorites

amoss@mindspring.com | Decatur, Ga. | 07/06/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These guys could have come up with a bucket of nacho cheese, but instead serves us a deisel martini. The delivery is an echo of the 50s and 60s lounge and norte-a, but the flavor brings images of corrossive metal screeching across a seering wasteland. It's like a roadtrip through bleached alkalai flats- turn off the airconditioning and settle in."