What is Novatunes?
The concept is in the name with these eighteen songs of varying moods. The is something for almost everyone on this album that doesn’t pretend to be something that it isn’t. From reggae grooves to classic Dinah Washington with worldly sounds and arrangements, Nova Tunes 1.8 is a delightfully healthy musical smorgasbord, and pays homage to the playlist, or “le grand mix” of Nova radio in Paris, France.
Let’s browse the musical stimulus offerings in this package, starting with track two, “Jamaican Boy”. “Take me down to Kingston, love to see Mobay”, sings Brisa Roche` who one can only imagine is as lovely as her bright voice sounds.
“Beruit” from Nantes begins with a calliope, adds Spanish trumpet flourish, and breaks into an indescribably diverse foreign melody. “Talkin’ Ni**a Brothaz” almost stereotypically plays like a smirky scene from one of Director Hal David’s Lil' Rascals shorts from the 1930s, only with hip hop parables added!. I’ll ignore “the ‘N’ word in this context and on this occasion.
Some More Favorite Nova Tunes
Munk featuring Asia Argento’s “Live Fast Die Old” rocks just like the eighties hit “Over Like A Fat Rat” by Fonda Rae! Then comes my favorite torch song herein, “Cry Me A River”, performed by Dinah Washington. With a creepingly mysterious intro that I haven’t experienced in a long while and delivered with such clarity and positioning, I finally understood the whole message of this vintage song – what a sassy selection!
A coffeehouse acoustic guitar under a foreign-tongued Sharon Jones surrounds “How Long Do I Have To Wait For You” (Ticklah remixed version) – just another stop on this international journey!
You’ll relish pondering the piano forte “downtempo” groove of Absynth Minded’s "My Heroics, Part One" on the way to this album’s finale, “We’re Through”, a number whose pace was a staple of innovative urban radio circa late 1970s and 1980s by James Pants. Just like on the late Frankie Crocker-programmed WBLS, New York City, there and bells and rhythm without the unnecessary whistles.
Summary
NovaTunes 1.8 provides just over seventy minutes of dilettantish musical dish throughout eighteen delicious tracks. Not by any means your standard dance club fare, this is a sophisticated listening room that is just as suitable for a cocktail sip or networking mixer, et digne de trois étoiles du point huit (and worthy of three-point-eight stars) by dint of the material selected alone.
Released November 2008 on Wagram Records
