Sexotica is
Sex Mob's homage to
Martin Denny and the sound of Exotica, but don't go in expecting a Quiet Village. Instead, it seems like the idea was to create their own very personal soundworld, much the way
Denny did, but using different tools and sounds. In many ways, it's just another step in a logical progression for
Sex Mob. They've never been afraid of using studio tricks; previous releases were co-produced by
Scotty Hard who added some of his own sonic treatments, but this time out the entire album is a full-on collaboration between the production team of
Good and Evil (
Danny Blume and
Christian Castagno) and the band, where the music and production are practically equal players. The tunes were recorded live in the studio (first or second takes), with
Kenny Wollesen overdubbing various percussion. Then the tapes were simply handed over to
Blume and
Castagno to do what they wanted, keeping in mind leader
Steven Bernstein's admonition to divide the sound about equally between the band tracks and the production. It's a trippy and sometimes confusing mix of organic instrumentation and production techniques that often makes it difficult to figure out who's doing what. There are
Briggan Krauss' saxophones,
Bernstein's slide trumpet,
Tony Scherr on bass, and
Wollesen's drums and percussion (all of which may or may not be treated), but there's also scratching, samples, bits of studio chatter, crazy stereo panning, rhythm boxes and programming, dub techniques, and bits of sonic flotsam and jetsam that all weave in and out through the mix. Oh yeah, it grooves like crazy too, from the tribal
"Pygmy Suite" to the slinky
"Quiet" to the ferocious ending of
"7 Bars." Bernstein and
Krauss are both wonderfully deranged players when they want to be, and there's some nice soloing on
Sexotica, but it's more about feel and mood on this album than soloing.
Sex Mob's mission has always been to bring jazz back into the popular mainstream, not as a museum piece but as music of the people: dance music, the way it was before the business of music took precedence over the music. They play loose, they play fun, and they play to make you move. There's never been a jazz album that sounded like this, but
Sex Mob have been in a league of their own for some time now. Jazz purists will hate it, but that's part of the fun too. If you've got an ear for adventurous jazz and a good groove, make travel plans to go to
Sex Mob's land of
Sexotica. It's quite a trip. ~ Sean Westergaard
