Death In Vegas - The Contino Sessions

7.0 - England - 1999

Much hyped at the time -- to the point of garnering a Mercury prize nomination -- Death In Vegas' second effort sees the Scottish DJ-Producer pair enlist a bunch of session musicians and some vocal ringers to create a more rock-oriented expansion of their electronica. The record comes off as an attempt to create one of those somewhat pretentious soundtracks without a movie (also: to rip off Primal Scream, as the duo have apparently more or less openly copped). The problem is that it doesn't quite work.  Despite the layers of sound, much of the record sounds, well, almost unfinished, like it's missing a part or two. Take, for example, "Flying": on the surface it works as a decent enough extended psych jam until you realize it doesn't really have a lead part. Could've been album highlight "Aladdin's Story", a pretty gospel number featuring (eventually) The London Community Gospel Choir, has a great sound, but doesn't go anywhere for several repeats of the instrumental verse-chorus structure until the vocals arrive. Likewise "Lever Street" has a gorgeously recorded organ part, but that's it; the "tune" (and there's not even a "tune" there) comes across as nothing more than pointlessly overlong intro to "Aladdin's Story", except the tracks aren't even segued properly. Pitchfork -- whose vintage review focuses mainly on the Scream aping -- ably observes the lack of compelling basslines as the main problem, but I think the issue is a bit more fundamental. Being DJs (and not, as the old farts would say, "real musicians"), Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes seem to understand exactly how the dubby electro-rock they're aiming for should sound, but not how to put it together. It's like they got the production and the arrangements down pat, but forgot the compositions. That said, when this album does work, it really does work. Opener "Dirge" builds wonderfully and has enough of a vocal and bass hook to not get monotonous. The real highlight, however, is the Iggy Pop narrated murder fantasy "Aisha", which is at turns chilling, thrilling, and darkly comic.