I often review music as I discover America on long road trips. So it
was on a recent one when I auditioned "Funky Bohemia" from new artist
(at least to my ears) ellee ven [Hot Sauce Records HSR 0511].
According to her military-sounding "Communications Director" (how bout
"publicist"?) Josie Mora, the name is pronounced "el-eeh-ven rhymes
with ten." Did ya get that? Me neither.
So on the road while listening to it, the first mental note I made was
that she reminded me of Lisa Stansfield vocally. Why was I not
surprised when I read elleeven's bio that Lisa was listed as one of
her influences? Hey, this is a good thing! Every artist needs an
inspirational focal point. Stansfield was one of my and late good
friend Frankie Crocker's faves back in the day as the eighties turned
into the nineties! I know he'd be playing this CD if he were alive
(and probably programming a satellite radio station) today.
"Funky Bohemia" starts out creeping at'cha with a bassy jam called
"Pushing Me." Next it is onto the iron maiden with the strident
"Proved My Power," laced by 'Ven's silky vocalizations. The mood is
euro-deep here, so it is no wonder that soon the music sends us
"Spiraling" (cut three, boys and girls) into the disc's first
eardrum-pounding funky beat.
Just try to "Silently/Scream" (track four), and if you don't catch a
hernia, surely we will have been around the world, not finding our
baby. There is plenty of hit material here, especially on "Labyrinth
of Love", the title of which blows me away as a wordsmith. It is a
ballad again worthy of another of her shapers, Sade and even more so
on track ten, "I Realize" which again, is Stansfield-ish likewise
utilizing only a drum beat against her lyrical gangsta – a groovy
combination of successful sounds that need to be perpetuated, in my
opinion.
But why "Bohemia"? Is she from the Czech Republic? Not at all,
according to Josie, who apparently speaks on her behalf, "ellee ven is
Spanish, Greek, Italian, Russian, and German [all of the Romance
languages, I guess] and she wanted to purposely combine all of her
influences to express what she thinks is reflective of her
experiences." 'Works for me.
The album should have been called "Under My Skin" though. With the
many remixes of the "elleeventh" track, it is obvious to this reporter
that it is the stalwart of the sessions. They all have the potential
to be pop/rock fusion hits in their own right, but mainly serve to
extend the disc's life. Potentially the Tabasco of the dance floor and
airwaves, her haunting delivery soothes as she croons the
groovetronics. Now that's coining a phrase or terminology for ya,
which exposes a fun side to all this headiness in song.
Not only do they have a promotional contest to entice purchase of the
CD – a Hollywood vacation - but this former school teacher promotes
sexy education on tour. As Josie relates it, "we have ellee ven
condoms, people always get a kick out of [them]; while on tour in
Reno, the [hotel] bell guy told me that he got lucky that night and
was grateful that he had received one of them." Geez, when is she
coming to my hometown? (Smiles)
DJs will want to have this one in their CD cases as well as
club-minded party goers. Finally, since there is already a Lisa S., I
pray that ellee will continue to develop her own identity and
performance persona with ensuing projects so that she can take us with
her as she steps up to the next landing. This I believe she is
already on the road to actualizing when she says her motto is "to be
the best self and living the life that you imagined; nobody can change
yesterday, but everybody can start today and change tomorrow." That is
a theme concurrent with many conversations I have with friends and
strangers as we attempt to settle the world these days. The website,
www.elleeven.com has neat info not covered here, by the way. So on
those funky Bohemic notes, I am empowered to bless this CD with four
stars.
