gullbuy music review

Headman - Dance Modern

title

Headman - Dance Modern

label

Eskimo Recordings

format
various artists CD

Gommagang Start CD coverA mixed compilation put together by Swiss artist Headman for the Belgian label Eskimo Recordings.

The disc is interesting because of the way it works. You read the track listing and think "yeah, this has some classics mixed with some new stuff and some stuff I don't know." When you listen to it, you wonder where all the songs you're expecting to pick out and identify are. Everything goes together so well is initially seems very same-y.

However, with repeated listening, this CD opens up like a well chosen bouquet of flowers, that changes and blooms during the next week of living in your place. Like that bouquet, you may eventually have to pick out the track or two that doesn't age well, but tracks that initially seem uninteresting start to open up and give you pleasure.

Like many mixed compilations, I have a favorite cluster of songs, as opposed to a favorite single track. I like listening to tracks 5 through 8 together, though the Rex the Dog track is a little too long. Headman used less than 2 minutes of the Divine track, but the full 5:25 of Rex the Dog. I really like the 2 tracks that bookend this cluster. Kango's Stein Massiv has a liquid sounding pulse washing against the beat, and Chromeo - who I had been curious about for quite some time, as he is a modern artist from Canada whose sound honors artists such as NYC's Bobby Orlando or SF's Patrick Cowley.

The two single songs I like best are The Film's Can You Trust Me and the classic Lene Lovich Lucky Number.

---Carl, February 1, 2005