The Lost Art of the Idle Moment

Album Review

Northern California-based producer/remixer Carmen Rizzo's first album under his own name features a long list of collaborators, mostly breathy-voiced women who provide the album's whispery lead vocals over Rizzo's subtle downtempo beats. (Jem, Royskopp's Kate Havenevik, and Digable Planets' Ladybug Mecca are the biggest female names, while alterna-folkie Grant Lee Phillips also steps up to the mike on the yearning "Snowflakes.") Mixing sounds softly acoustic and proudly synthetic, Rizzo rarely falls into the weedy "folktronica" trap of merely pretty chillout tunes, instead reaching for and often attaining a cinematic, sweeping sound akin to Portishead or Goldfrapp. Mellow and ambient but not wallpaper-ish, The Lost Art of the Idle Moment maintains active listener interest throughout.