Elevator Music

Album Review

Any Compost act willing to title a debut album Elevator Music is either being self-deprecating or not very smart — unless, of course, the title references an aim to lift the listener's spirits. Regardless, it's a dicey move, and since Elevator Music is an album released on Compost, there's bound to be at least a couple moments that are deserving of such a categorization. This is no exception, but there's room for a little bit of everything throughout the course of this extremely lengthy album, whether one is talking about levels of quality or stylistic shifts. This full-length from Rainer Trüby and company has been a long time coming, evidenced by the inclusion of the 1999 single "A Go Go" and an update of the similarly dusty "Alegre." In a sense, it's unfortunate this album came so late, since dance albums with heavy-handed Brazilian fusioneering had become such a beyond-tiresome thing by 2003. Some of this material originated before the overload, so it's hard to knock them for it, even though — as prominent, established figureheads of the scene — they were partly responsible for the glut. Besides, there's more to the album than that. "Universal Love," with a big fat swipe from L.T.D.'s Mizells-produced "Love to the World," sets the breezy, carefree tone that drifts throughout the album. "Runnin'," one of two tracks featuring vocalist Wunmi (see also Bugz in the Attic's "Zombie"), is a particularly breathless Afro-beat/broken-beat hybrid. Like a lot of its peers, Trüby Trio is too anxious to show off all the group's facets on one disc. The best moments here are in danger of being washed out by the sheer quantity of content, a fair portion of which fails to stimulate.