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Various - Fashionista Metropolitain
Subtitled as "Music and Sex for the City", the packaging (nice case and glossy insert) for this double cd seems aimed at some mythical target audience of wannabe beautiful people. The blurb on the insert is particularly odd, rambling on as it does about an "...inexorable synergy of style and music with sex as the link" and "Imagine Kate Moss and Audrey Hepburn chatting to Johnny Depp and Cary Grant....The soundtrack would have to be Fashionista Metropolitain". There are references to "..Gucci..", "..cocktails..", "slipping on your best shoes..", "..the strut of the catwalk.." and "..Madison Avenue..". Oh dear, somebody has been watching too much Sex And The City!The packaging blurb is made even odder when you see which artists appear on the compilation. Appearances by Matthew Herbert and Slovo stand in stark political contrast to the aspirational lifestyle garbage that somebody in marketing thought was a great idea to put in the sleeve notes.
However, once you have binned (recycled) the packaging you will be more than happy with tunes. Chosen by Ben Mynott, one half of Big Chill favourites Fragile State, each track is a little downtempo gem. In common with the last Fragile State chosen compilation "Just Got Home", quality rather than cutting edge freshness is the reasoning behind the chosen tracks.
CD1, subtitled 23:00 hrs, opens with the beautiful "Shadow Journal" by Max Richter from "The Blue Notebooks" album. This track pretty much sets the scene for the rest of CD1. Some of the tracks are very familiar, e.g. the Egg's "Lost At Sea", 2 Banks of Four's " Two Miles Before Dawn" and Slovo's "Whisper", but lose none of their original appeal. Lesser known names such as Club8 and Martinez together with Justin Robertson's "Love Movement" given an always welcome Ulrich Schnauss remix, provide the perfect atmosphere for being horizontal in. But wait a minute! This CD is subtitled 23:00hrs, oh well an early night does you good once in a while.
CD2, subtitled 04:00hrs, is strangely more upbeat. Maybe this is supposed to be the music to accompany the sex you and your new date are going to have in your penthouse overlooking the nighttime New York skyline?! Forget all that nonsense and change the scene to your very own time and space, and enjoy Ben Mynott’s fine choice of jazzily influenced head nodders from the likes of Floris, Zion Lockwood, Fragile State (with a remix by 4Hero), Future Loop Foundation and others.
To be fair I can see what the sleeve notes were on about; the tracks on Fashionista Metropolitain do posses lots of class, no cheesiness but with a much needed slightly rough edge or two. But take my advice, put each CD in a clear plastic wallet and enjoy the tunes. I especially recommend listening in carpet slippers whilst wearing baggy jogging bottoms preferably with paint splatters on them, topped off with a “Stop The War” tee shirt just to annoy the beautiful people . Then again you could rent a hotel room overlooking Central Park, …..
4/5 for the tunes
Fashionista Metropolitain is out now
Soyo
Written: 19th Jul, 04
Read: 2343 times
