- Tosca have been at it for a while now, delivering a mellow blend of funk fused dub since their early releases of Chocolate Elvis and Fuck Dub, back when the K&D sessions were yet to be released upon the unsuspecting public. And since the genre forming excitement of K&D’s remixes, much of Tosca’s releases have been relatively down played, becoming a secret passion for those truly in love with the sounds coming from the G-stone stable.
Truth be known though, the duo consisting of Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber have been rather prolific since those early singles, releasing long players such as Opera and Suzuki, as well as a slew of remix compilations of tunes from those albums (Suzuki in Dub and Different Taste of Honey). And this year the pair have released yet another winner in the form of Delhi9, pushing their sound even further into the sparse regions of instrumental dub groove.
The sounds are definitely a little different from past releases, with most of the bass being played on a warm electronic fretless bass, and the melodies sounding fresh with piano, organ and flute tones, all still dubbed up with filtered echo’s as per their usual style. There is also a larger assortment of vocalist, with the return of Anna Clementi, plus the introduction of Tweed on the brilliant dub house tune Gute Loune, and Earl Zinger on the first single Wonderful.
Some who know me personally might say that I could not objectively write a review of Tosca’s material… but what do they know. I think the album is bloody brilliant. It’s a lovely mix of trip hop, acid jazz, dub house and bossa groove, and while all that might sound a bit much, the coherency of the instrumentation provides a flow from tune to tune that leaves the hips rocking like waves on a summer beach. And just to prove my contemporaries wrong, there is in my opinion one dud – on the Anna Clementi sung Me & Yoko Ono, Tosca find themselves being
quirky rather than kinky… I prefer kinky but that’s just me.
So all up a good buy and another quality release from the G-stone label. And you also get a second cd, which contains minimal piano arrangements written by Rupert Huber, and dubbed up by Dorfmeister, which is also a beautiful listen. Top job lads, bring on the remixes I say.