Green Velvet puts new spin on house
by Brad Horn,Outpost staff
Techno with its insides twisted on a perpetual groove.
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Photo Courtesy of F-111 Records |
Green Velvet, the Chicago-born DJ and techno master, just released a self-titled debut album for F-111 Records that blends techno and house sounds with meditations, sometimes with a comic flavor, creating an original compilation of dance music.
The artist known as Cajmere until 1993, claims his childhood influences of Sly Stone and George Clinton, and their funk-style can be heard in his early '90s releases under that name.
His earlier releases "Underground Goodies" (EP 1991) and "Brighter Days" (Single 1992) were more house-oriented. Green Velvet is harder alternative compared to Cajmere, a more techno-influenced project.
The second track on the album Answering Machine is a mix of jungle beats, interesting scratches, and responses from an answering machine. A girl breaks up with him. His landlord kicks him out. His psychic tells him his life is over. And a girl continues to stalk him. The song flows with some interesting beats.
Stalker begins with a slow typical techno opening picking up its pace and exploding into a catchy rhythmic groove. The haunting lyrics, "I waited for you outside, for 20 hours, for you to come home, but you didn't make it home last night, but I waited because I knew you wanted to see me, where were you, to say high to you, I'm losing my mind," penetrate the audience.
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The themes explored on this album are effectively presented because of the techno music that orchestrates it. The music colors the words pulling the audience into its grips and exposing them to the essence of the lyrics--a dark hard look into the dungeon of Green Velvet.
Coitus is faster than the first part of the record. A light trance beat initiates the song with a spiraling buzz. As most songs of this type, it starts out simple, evolving into a multi-layered piece of art that lifts the audience and gently sets them down. The DJ pulls the strings. Its almost like you are dancing with the DJ's mind. The relationship is surreal. The good ones make the dance last all night.
The songs have smooth transitions. They flow well. The arrangement of the songs is interesting. They tell a story in a surreal stream-of-consciousness sort of way.
Water Molecule starts out with Green Velvet asking "is there such a thing as reincarnation?" It is a fast techno influenced dance tune with sporadic insertions of Green Velvet and his constant questioning of reality and nature. It is dark and edgy. He ends the mix asking "what if when we die we all become one molecule and this has been happening for billions of years--I think I want to be a rock."
Leave My Body is filled with deep bass drums with insertions of electronically influenced lyrics that create a stretched distorted sound in the vocals.
Green Velvet is a unique blend of mind-bending tracks that create the perfect amalgamation of conformity and madness.
Posted April 29, 2000
Copyright 2000 Nevada Oupost
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