City Delirious

Review Justin Robertson crafts a rare balance ... [m]echanical dance beats manage to have soul, familiar samples are used for punctuation rather than pilfered for structure and even lounge sounds seem to have substance. -- The Los Angeles Times Amazon.ca City Delirious is a complete smorgasbord of jazz, blues, hip-hop, and techno--at least four decades of musical influences--and Chef Lionrock (Justin Robertson) has earned his tenure as a DJ. The album is seamlessly divided into two vibes--the first half is a funked-out, jazzed-out, big-beat jam, and the second half is a loungy cool-down. The jazzy second track, "Rude Boy Rock," is a representative microcosm for the rest of the album. Giddy, quirky, and sexy, it scoots along in a madcap way and would have been a shoe-in candidate for the background music to a very special episode of Gilligan's Island. (Story line: James Bond surfs into the lagoon, has a few romps with Ginger, and spends the rest of the show trying not to get caught.) Robertson hails from Manchester, England, and tips his hat to the homestead by interjecting standard Happy Mondays/Soup Dragons-style Rasta-man samples over the top of the song. The rest of the album is jammed with everything from early-'80s "industrial-lite" to Rolling Stones blues riffs to non-threatening raps that fall somewhere between Young MC and PM Dawn to the most reptilian of after-hours lounge. Someone this inventive and musically informed could have easily thrown together a record that was overwhelming and incongruent. But City Delirious is a sensationally tasteful buffet of rhythms, instruments, and influences--delicious from the first course to the last. --Beth Bessme