Divine Ecstasy
For their first trick, the Chicago duo Supreme Cuts dazzled critics with an instrumental album that merged the aesthetics of Windy City genre footwork with flourishes of experimental pop and R&B. For its follow-up, they\'ve invited a host of vocalists up onstage, then sawed them in half ... metaphorically speaking. The tracks here stop just short of congealing into pop songs with traditional structures, instead unfolding in layers and waves, taking cues from the band\'s house music influences. \"Envision\" features the ethereal vocals of Polica\'s Channy; its swirling techno beat appears and disappears, only to materialize at the end. \"Down\" features more slight of hand, nodding to drum \'n\' bass in its opening minutes, then morphing into atmospheric trip-hop. The surprise star of this show is singer Mahaut Mondino, a newcomer whose airy vocals grace \"Brown Flowers\" and \"Gone.\" The latter is the album\'s centerpiece, a skittering track that\'s as hard to pin down as it is to forget.
Chicago production duo Supreme Cuts' Whispers in the Dark was a strikingly trendy and sometimes engrossing stew of bass beats that seemed more eager to confound than galvanize. Alongside a number of vocal collaborators on their new album Divine Ecstasy, Supreme Cuts shoot for the anthemic but come up measurably short.
On which Supreme Cuts find themselves somewhere between the mainstream, and the edge of the very universe.
<p>Every contemporary style of dance music is in play on this strangely conceived album by the Chicago duo, writes <strong>Paul MacInnes</strong></p>