Bran Van 3000 - Discosis

YOURZ

This is a genre-hopping masterpiece and, prior to Mine and YourZ (truly) discovering Dusted by Katalyst (see the review here), this album was THE choice party-starter.  In fact, I remember going to a backyard BBQ a number of years ago where the only album played all night was this one, on repeat.  Everything else simply paled into insignificance against it.

As Mine mentions below, it features one of last tracks Curtis Mayfield ever recorded and, while this is a stunning song, is one of large number of stunners on Discosis (whose guest list also includes Eek-A-Mouse, Dimitri from Paris, Youssou N'dour and Badar Ali Khan, among others).  And believe me, there's a lot to pick from, with songs for all moods and flavours.  It really is a crowd pleaser.  And the Boris Vallejo cover art is icing on the cake.

Now the real question is why we don't own their third release, Rosé?

VERDICT: TURN IT UP


MINE

When YourZ first introduced me to Bran Van 3000, shortly after we first began our relationship, I was gobsmacked.  Not just because of the quality that shines through Discosis, but because I had never heard of them before.  Now that may seem a bit egotistic, but at the time I was an avid purchaser of music magazines and worked quite closely with the radio industry.

Anyway, this album became a firm favourite as soon as I heard it, and it's now on my list of CDs-to-be-replaced immediately - should an apocalypse visit our current collection.  The opening song features one of my favourite singers - Curtis Mayfield - recorded shortly before he died.  For those of you who don't know, Curtis (who wrote Superfly, one of the best soundtrack albums of all time) was paralysed from the neck down after a lighting rig hit him in 1990.  He recorded the vocals for Astounded like he did all of the songs on his last album - lying flat on his back.  And if you've never heard that song, listen to it NOW.  It changed my life, maybe it'll change yours.

The main point about Discosis though is that all the songs are different.  REALLY different.  They're catchy and cool, the album is loooooong and also features the wildly gorgeous voice of Senegal's Youssou N'Dour.  Divine.  And it contains one of our favourite songs - we picked Love Cliché to lead off the soundtrack to our wedding video.

VERDICT:TURN IT UP (ain't no party like a Bran Van party)


For more information: http://www.last.fm/music/Bran+Van+3000


In our collection, we also have Glee