Customer Reviews

Discosis

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Bran Van 3000's 1998 album Glee was hailed by many to be a great pastiche of genres, and I'll give it that. There are a lot of different sounds piled in there, but the problem I had was that it felt like it was darker than it should have been. It's hard to explain it, but it sounded like there was a happy album wanting to get out there, but the band was feeling too bitter to let it fly, and there's a number of pointless interludes and boring songs thrown in there. Discosis, I was pleasantly surprised to hear, lets everything go. The six-minute opener dispelled any fears I had of more cumbersome rock and rapping. The Bran Van guys found some old vocal track that Curtis Mayfield recorded, but never used, and somehow got the rights to use it in their own song. So they made a whole song for the Curtis track! The music is just what you would expect when you think of the word "discosis." It's really dancey, has dramatic strings segments, is slickly produced, and it sounds like it's basically swirling all around you. The Bran Van girls is even back Curtis up on the chorus, "All I wanna do is love you / I just wanna take you there." And no less than four minutes into it, what sounds like a couple of Cuban guys take over the vocal duties in their own language, while someone goes absolutely wild on a flute solo. This is the song for the your party mix.

Although their first album sounded unbalanced at times, this one bearly misses a beat. The songs are packed together and even though their throw the genres around, the songs all have a similar type of sound to them. Also, as with the first album, they recycle vocal tracks using them on more than one track. So we actually get a preview of "Senegal" in "Montreal" and a reprise of the Cuban singers in "Discosis." It's a really effective way of making the album more cohesive. Oh, and if you noticed, there's a whole slew of special guests brimming with indie credentials. Bran Van 3000 has always been more like a collective than a band with people coming and going as they please, so this all fits in fine. Loop Me" is a sultry space-accented lounge kind of song, although I think it goes without saying that anything the Bran Van girls sing turns out sultry. Their voices are perfectly fit for an album like this, with of its tongue-in-cheek disco stylings. The "Loaded" and "Speed" combination is another in the natural progression of things idea. "Loaded" is sung by the girls and is basically about partying and drinking a lot. "Speed" is like the antithesis, a beautiful acoustic-turned-rock-turned-rap song from the same girl, except it looks like she needs someone to put some excitement in her life. ("So hold on / Take me with you! / Hold on / My soul is on!") She wants to ride someone's motorbike, and this other guy starts rapping and it turns into a sort of quasi-conversation. As the song moves along, the music seems to gradually build and speed up until at the end the guy is yelling "New Jersey girl! / We gonna ride around! / New Jersey girl / New Jersey sun!" It's really just a wonderful song.

Globe-hopping, genre-plundering, tongue-in-cheek and bringing it all back to the nightclub. It doesn't get any more cosmopolitan than Bran Van. Oh, yeah, and what's most amazing: They're Canadian.

Its weird to see how after such an amazing and weird project like Glee, BV3000 comes out and does a pop/disco/reggae cd with no experimental tendencies whatsoever. This CD redefines BV3k's style under a "popish" label. IT is not that they did pop songs, but that they worked and reworked and used the same technique in most of their songs, which are, in some sort and to a great extent, a derivation of "everywhere" from their first album. Apart from that they have managed to distinguish themselves in an area that human kind has no knowledge of. So this record could be put in the section of i dont know what kind of music this is beacause it has too many styles BV3k style.
That is what BV3000 is about. About breaking barriers and having no classification, but in my opinion they could have accomplished that without tryng to do more commercial stuff.
Maybe if they had not collaborated with that many people they wouldnt have been influenced to make such a wacky yet flawed record.

In my opinion, my main frontman has gotten hooked on his own technique of weirdness... he needs to layoff the mic, and stop listening to music for a while. Clear out his head...
If the band tries to do something not so bv3k next time, and try something new and keep it constant for a record, the following album will kick rears for these are talented and creative people...

With an album as scattered as glee coming from apparently more of an unformed collective than a solid group I was expecting a big sophomore slump in discosis. I was too curious to resist the purchase and the album has been playing constantly since. The Curtis Mayfield track is a fantastic song and I wish had been more of a hit, the sexy crooning that is not afraid to be fancy is such a nice change of pace from all the soundalike gutteral voice rock bands howling around. Also it sets a nice tone that the rest of the album holds up except for one or two tracks (I am thinking "The answer" and "loaded" specifically) Overall this album is not a simple rehash of glee material, there are certainly more real songs here, and some stunning moments in "More Shopping" & "montreal" which ends in a chant that loops back again later in the album. Very impressive -

The stupid club beats get annoying, but i suppose that's what they were trying to get across.....their first album was great, but the only song i care for on this is 'rock star' all in all it doesnt seem as diverse as the first one

A welcome relief for those of us who wondered where BV3 would go after GLEE. This one will not disappoint. On first listen the songs are less approachable than the feel good tunes from the first albumn. And while I won't be giving this one away to all my friends and family it will certainly become one of the treasures in my collection.

I loved Glee - thought it was one of the most exciting, quirky and fun albums to come along for a long time. I thought the way the crew shifted from slacker pop to dancefloor to faux-harcore rap to folk was brilliant. I'd hoped for more of the same from Discosis.

Nope. Discosis is diverse - it's got everyone from Eek-A-Mouse to Curtis Mayfield to Youssou N'Dour on it - but everything is united by a dancefloor beat and slick production. The end result - you can throw it on your stereo and crank up a pretty good party, but it won't surprise you. The charming, odd moments of Glee are absent altogether, and so's much of the appeal. If you liked the dancier stuff on Glee, you may well love Discosis. If, instead, you enjoyed the acoustic cover of Come On Feel the Noise, skip this one.

Glee was one of the best CD's I have ever purchased. I thought to myself that there was no way Discosis could ever live up to it's predecessor, but if it was even half as good I'd love it. Even with these low expectations, I found myself very disappointed.

Bottom line: The CD is not really stellar but I may just feel this way because the first CD was so good.

After reading all these 5-star reviews, I went back and listened to Discosis all the way through again, but I still think it's two step backwards from Glee. This new release sounds like a bunch of airy pop tunes with no guts. Where is this cd's "Couch Surfer?" There's plenty of "Drinking in LA" wanna-be's on Discosis, but not much else. Color me disappointed. Bummer.

I bought this CD after reading the reviews on this site and was even more impressed than I thought I would be. This album is truly a gem; it is incredibly well-done, original, and, best of all, it succeeds in being original.

The CD has 17 tracks and all of them are well done. Unlike most albums, it doesn't go downhill after the first few tracks. Every song is unique and different in its own right, and everything comes together well. My favourite songs would be Astounded, Loop Me, Speed and Love Cliche, though everything on the whole album is well done.

The only downside is that the vocal talents of BV3 pale in comparison James Di Salvio's songwriting skills. Most tracks have lead vocals doen by performers outside of the group, but the vocals that are done by the members of the group do seem to lack some liveliness. They are good, but not up there with the best.

Aside from that, though, this is an incredible album. It's definitely one of the best CDs that I have. Rarely do you find an attempt at creativity working out as well as this has.

I had the distinct priviledge of living in Montreal at the time BV3 released Glee, their first album (I was even lucky enough to meet some of the bv3 folk). Not only did Glee completely embody the cool, weird, wacky, and generally brilliant culture of Montreal, but it was a musical tour-de-force and one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard (and I listen to a lot of music).

When I saw that bv3 released a new album, I scraped all the change out of my pocket and went to buy the CD. Was I ever in for a surprise during the first listen-through. Upon hearing the first few notes of "Astounded" (featuring the legendary Curtis Mayfield), I screamed "Oh my God! They've gone Disco! Or not. What is this funky latin rhythm?" Then I waited a few minutes. "Hmmm... It's world music (Montreal)" A few minutes later "What an incredible reagge song (Go Shoppin')" And so on...
As you can see, Discosis is yet another collection of different music styles and some incredible collaborations. Curtis Mayfield, the incredible Youssou N'dour, the reagge pioneer Eek-a-Mouse, DJ Dimitri from Paris, and the ever-so-cool Montreal rocker Jean Leloup (definitely worth checking out) all lend their immense musical talents to this fantastically eclectic collection of songs.

Music lovers of any genre, particularly those interested in exploring something new and brilliantly refreshing, need to get this CD immediately.