Search - Les Gammas :: Exercices Des Styles

Organica and Electronic Fused with Soul: Exercises in Style

Azikiwe | Atlanta, Georgia USA | 08/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Everyone's ears are listening for something different on the first run of a new music purchase. You are probably reading this review to see if I heard something in this CD worth spending hard earned cyber-dollars on. Most of the reviews on amazon are ambiguously favorable, which can leave you like "Damn, does this guy like what I like." So I will say this about this debut from Les Gammas -- I loved it. If you like Jazzanova, 4-hero, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Calm, Silent Poets, Lewis Taylor, Homecookin, and Omar, you will probably dig this. This group is on the label Compost with Rainer Truby, Truby Trio, Kyoto Jazz massive, and Jazzanova (via collaboration on Jazzanova-Compost Records).The Soul, Drum N' Bass, Dance Jazz, Bossa, and Downtempo genre's are all well represented here; yet, this album defies the myopic boundaries that segregate modern music into sub-genre after sub-genre. Whether your in a chillout mood, driving over the speed limit, reading a book, or sweating on the dance floor, Exercices Des Styles has a groove for any mood. What kind of music is this? Music for the Soul."

Innovative and Entertaining

Nick Kallen | Berkeley, CA USA | 02/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Exercises de Styles is not without tracks that you don't want to listen to, but it has at least 3 songs that you'll want to hear a billion times. All around the album is pretty great. If you're into this type of music, or you have really broad tastes in the Electronic and Lounge genres, buy this album now.Following in the tradition of Nuyorican Soul, Air, and Jimi Tenor, Les Gammas' Exercises de Styles varies between a study of seemingly trite music styles and ground-breaking genre-bending pop-music like you've never heard before. None of the songs degenerate into kitsch, but fuse lounge sensibility, Latin rhythms, a disco feel, and french-pop melodies, often into an overwhelming and enveloping symphonic sound.More than just "excercises", the album brings incredible creativity to the styles explored, resulting in something new and unique. The use of electronic instruments to complement (rather than dominate) the acoustic feel creates such subtle sophistication that you melt.It reminds me so much of Jimi Tenor's album Organism and Nuyorican Soul's single Black Gold of the Sun but at the same time it is entirely something new and different.Buy this album."

New genre uprising

C. Ongena | Ghent,Belgium | 02/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like Saint-Germain, Les Gammas combine soul, funk and jazz with a drum&bass like sound. They use samples from George Duke amongst others. See the Sun features a voice with the strength of Talk Talk's 'Life's what you make it'. Really worth your while."