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Review: Supreme Cuts - Divine Ecstasy
House | Monday 24th February 2014 | Pete
Supreme Cuts is a Chicagoan duo consisting of Mike Perry and Austin Keultjes who are fans of musicians such as Timbaland right through to the shoegazers known as My Bloody Valentine. Supreme Cuts' newest album, however, is far from reminiscent of either of these musicians/bands, instead going for an almost disco-like sound.
The album opens with a lengthy squeal followed by a man's voice speaking about, I'm assuming, feelings of both agony and ecstasy. The track is called, quite simply, 'Introduction (Agony/Ecstasy)' and lasts only just below two minutes, finishing with a quick 80s disco tune.
Track two is 'Cocktails' featuring Shy Girls – a very nineties boy band-sounding piece layered with electronic claps and “stutters” with lyrics that are hard to understand and the only decipherable words being “swallowing” and “where did all the clocks go?” Later in the track the claps begin to sound like those often heard on rap and hip-hop albums except with very high male chants.
'Gone', which features the voice of Mahaut Mondino, is much like the previous track except with decipherable lyrics and more instruments which include a piano and some heavy bass sections. With these new instruments and female vocals thrown in, it is enjoyable and a decent enough track.
Next up is 'Dionysus Rising' – a 37 second track consisting of a ringing bell and eastern drum beats. It's nothing special and before we've had a chance to really think about or even listen to it the track is over. The next three tracks, 'Envision' (featuring Channy of Polica), 'Divine Ecstasy' and 'Peak Experience' are nothing special and consist of repetitive bass drum and synth lines next to the now-familiar claps we've already heard in previous tracks.
'Down' which features The GTW, Khallee and David Ashley lifts the mood a bit with its mix of lively singing and rapping with melodic synth lines and “twinkles” which make the listener think of light reflecting off of the stars hanging on the branches of their Christmas tree.
Moving away from the rapping is 'Brown Flowers' with Mahaut Mondino offering her voice again to create something close to a ballad. Beginning with two piano chords which are followed by Mondino's singing, the track is calm, eighties-sounding and relaxing. By the middle of the track the beats and claps have sped up slightly but they soon slow down to bring that ballad feeling back with Mahaut Mondino's voice harmonised with spoken words and repeated chants. A lengthy scream is also thrown in for good measure before the track finishes with the line “All the flowers suddenly turn brown” and a horn gently fades out.
Don't touch his “lovely Isis” or they'll hold you down “like a vice grip”. Track 10, entitled 'Isis', could be considered as “a chillout track with rapped vocals and cool, liquid synth lines”. With mentions of candles, heat and not leaving yet, the track is very sexual. Melodic, calming and harmonic, this is one of the more preferred tracks on the album as it all works very well together and is one of those tracks that can be listened to consecutively.
'Bacchus' is another short and boring track at 33 seconds followed by 'Faded' which is slightly more interesting, but not something to rave about (or to). It's slow, quiet and repetitive and one that can be skipped with little to no complaints.
Another “sexy” (or wet dream) track, 'It's Like That' begins with singing/rapping about “making love to flashing lights” followed by “I don't wanna wake up” and a deep voice groaning “hypnotised” multiple times. With some trance-like synth around the four minutes mark followed by some soft sax playing, the track has become somewhat jazzy. However, this all suddenly changes when a hard house beat comes in a minute later to finish off the track. This ending was a bit of a disappointment as the sax worked well, but the sudden volume-raise seemed to ruin it all.
The aforementioned trance and jazz (trazz?) then returns for the intro to 'Epilogue (Street Walker)', an 80s disco-like track with spoken vocals over soft piano playing and wisps of air. The track and album finishes with the jazzy sax leaving the listener feeling calm and fairly cheerful.
The album itself is a bit of a 50/50 thing. On one hand it has some good vocals and music sections, yet elsewhere it tends to be boring and slow with pointlessly short tracks which could have instead been used to extend the time of other tracks.
Is this album worth listening to? Maybe, but it's not something I'd consider album of the year.
- Pete Kent
Brown Flowers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mDwIXFRg2Q
