If Richard.D.James took a long, long holiday to South America, became slightly delirious with sunstroke, developed a strong love for the trumpet and then, in his cerebrally incoherent state, decided to make an album...it might have sounded something like this...
Ruisort's biography is eclectic to say the least. Like a Mexican Jane McDonald, he spent many years in tourist-packed hotel bars playing keyboard in a traditional Latin-American band, then, unlike Jane McDonald, he encountered rave culture and psychedelia.
His musical inspiration? The laydeez! According to Ruisort; "Women are a divine treasure, the universal object of devotion..."And he's currently working on "merengue" and Latino versions of Police records...So, after reading the press release and discovering that Ruisort is a smooth talking, Butlins redcoat wannabe, with a passion for rave music, I am more than intrigued to hear what the hell this is going to sound like..
The bizarrely titled "Dis mono- when I made God I didn't make a monkey man" sets the scene for the content of most of the record- an unappealing mix of electronic beats and synths and cheery calypso theme bar music. "Cos Coppertones" verges on drum and bass territory...until the maraccas interrupt and turn what could have been a decent track into a freestyle Latino/Jazz marathon with a crazy Mexican guy screeching in the background.
The whole record sits together very uneasily like a broken jigsaw and makes for uncomfortable listening due to the fact that it's like listening to two records at once: speaker a) "The best Latino carnival in the world..ever! Vol 890" and speaker b)"Squarepusher's day at the Playboy mansion".
There are, however, two decent tracks, in forthcoming single "Ipanema 5-0" and "Suite Caleta". The latter keeps things gratefully minimalist and pledges its allegiances to electronica rather than Cha-cha-cha.
"Ipanema 5-0" treats us to dark drum and bass- until the trumpet solo, but if you overlook Ruisort's obvious obsession with this particular wind instrument, then its the best one on the album.
"Acapulco Now!" has some definite good moments and is without doubt an "interesting" experiment (especially the cover of The Beatles "And I love her"), but it all sounds a bit too messy and uncomfortable. (And quit meddling with that goddamn trumpet!)
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4Lucy Tarry's Score