Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredibly exciting debut, 28 Jan 2004
Dani Siciliano completely surprised me with her amazing debut album Likes... A few months ago I read about her in an article in the GQ magazine on Jazz. I expected her to produce a kind of CD comparable to singers like Norah Jones or Lizz Wright but when I finally received the CD I was not sure whether the author had misunderstood the topic or included her by accident.
She is not at all the typical slick Jazz singer if you can call her music Jazz anyway. It almost sounds like, she's entered a new sphere of music and created her own style. Uniqueness is something she's certainly achieved.
Likes... is a fantasic composition of various musical styles beautifully arranged to become the most exciting debut album by any artist for at least months.
It starts off with the song 'Same' which goes on for 9 minutes but gives a perfect introduction into Dani's world. Her lyrics reflect the thoughts behind the music but one has to listen closely and find the context and understand the complexity of this album.
'Same' is followed by, believe it or not, a cover of Nirvana's 'Come as you are'. Sounding nothing like the original this version captures you in its bewitching arrangement of sounds, music and Dani's mysterious voice.
One of the best tracks on the album, from my point of view, is 'Extra ordinary'.
Dani has the great talent of being able to compose songs that, whether you want it or not, capture you and make your thoughts drift away.
She sometimes reminds me of Radiohead or Bjork but in a more innovative way. I guess the fact that most of her songs don't have a clear chorus gives them a more interesting effect and isn't being different to the rest something that makes a true artist special? I do think so.
Dani will be a pleasant surprise to everyone who appreciates good and innovative music and most of all all Portishead, Crustation, Massive Attack and Morcheeba fans who love the dark side of music.
I love this debut album and I can't wait to see more of Dani in the future.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Something to admire, rather than actually like too much., 30 Mar 2004
This album presents something of a conundrum. Musically it's impeccable. A series of sparse electronica based songs with precise syncopated percussion, bubbling bass lines, steely keyboards and Siciliano, s unemotional implacable vocals. And there lies my main problem with this album. It's all a little too clinical It's as if instead of a living beating heart pumping real blood being behind this music it's a hyper efficient piston pumping motor. Welcome to the machine.
"Same" sets the tone, with a pulsing backbeat, chirruping keyboards and a steady mechanical bass. Strings add some colour and dare I say it, emotion, but the song is nine minutes long and out stays it's welcome by half that. The cover of Nirvana's "Come as you are" renders it almost unrecognisable from the original which is a good thing. I haven't heard a cover version so radical since Fatima Mansions disembowelled "Shiny Happy People". Ushered in by French Horns it has a Jazzy swing and the clipped vocals completely negate the original melody. "Walk the Line" has more deep bottomed bass and a skittering melody but quickly becomes tiresome. "Canes and Trains" is a pointless noodle as is "One String" But "All Thee Above" is great, with a Wheezing accordion breezing in and out and duetting vocals from Ornellas Mugison. "Extra Ordinary "unfortunately isn't, with a repetitive beat, unfortunately not a memorable one, and flat vocals.
On "She say Cliché " and "Red" the melodies come more to the fore and both are more conventional tracks with addictive melodies and added depth via a clarinet and added vocal tracks. "Collaboration (Ready)" is low key to the point of invisibility but "Remember to Forget" ends the album with a lovely ballad augmented by trumpet, clarinet and flute and a more emotive vocal performance.
It's mostly impressive stuff in a cold mechanical way. It's like being given a surprise piece of shiny new technology. You can admire the performance and sleek lines but you just know you'll hardly ever use it. This is music with much to admire but it's difficult to like let along grow to love.
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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Patchy but promising, 24 Feb 2004
After four or five listens this album by the former Herbert (Bodily Functions) muse is still something of an enigma. Moments of brilliance are diffused by frustrating meanders into glitch territory and lack of structure both overall and in individual tracks. There is alot of positive things to say however, with Siciliano drawing favourable comparisons to Goldfrapp while mining something wholey indivualistic: the use of layered and repeating vocal lines over jagged synths and shuffling rhythms. The nine-minute opener, Same, stutters and surges into a thing of great beauty but seems - like the opener to the debut LP by the lysergic laptop duo My Computor - an oddly fragmented choice to kick things off. Nirvana cover Come As You Are might have been an inspired choice but is wasted on an unappetizing, half-baked soul jazz hybrid in the vein of drum & bass has-beens Four Hero. With 'Canes & Trains' and 'One String' proving to be mere two minute glitch doodles (leave that to Plaid and Autechre, please), the second half of the album suprises with a dramatic improvement. 'All The Above' is a bizarre duet with the bassist which ends in a trippy accordian melody and should have Tricky knocking on the studio door. This is followed by 'Extra Ordinary' and 'She Say Cliché' which follow in the vein of Bodily Functions but with the thankful absence of Herbert's deep house backdrops. Things tail off towards the end with final two tracks meandering into dullness, but the sense of underachievement is diminished by the promise of better things to come.
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~ Dani Siciliano
~ Portishead
~ Quantic Soul Orchestra
~ PJ Harvey
~ Herbert
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