Life & Times of Phoebus Brumal

Fila Brazillia – one of most prolific group in electronica – are back with two albums this year. This album is the earlier, dance oriented release.

The two operative words here are spacey and funky. Fila Brazillia usually keeps it more downtempo & jazzy (and there are shades of that throughout the album) but this disc has more of a funky get-down vibe. The beats are pretty straight-forward, but generally solid. By the way, the whole album is continuous, though tracks break down pretty cleanly.

Fila Brazillia is always hit or miss, and this album is no different. I get the feeling they should stick to downtempo, but there are definitely a few kickass tracks that you shouldn't miss. Check out tracks 6, 7, 9, 12, 13.

- Captain Dee, 10-2004

1. Uptempo drum hits with twangy guitar jam and electronics. (3:20)
2. Action-movie-ish techno beat with quiet bongos and standard super-funky guitar riff with electronic bass. Kinda groovin', but a tad too hackneyed. (4:50)
3. FCCs: "Bullshit." Quiet bass rumbling, tweaked melody, disjointed sax loops, and male vocals. (5:10)
4. Bizarre male singing/rapping over trippy guitar. (1:24)
5. Deep, Transylvania-esque electronic melody over quirky sounds. Boring. (4:11)
*6. Harp arpeggios, retro style beat and bass, soulful but distant sax, fitting electronic accompaniment. (5:09)
**7. Simple, powerful beat underlies country-ish guitar, bloopy electronics, joyful sax riffs and happy chiming. The song title is apt, I thought. Catchy! (4:10)
8. Foreboding bass, claps, jammin' drums, electric guitar riffs, electronic melodies. (4:13)
**9. Opens with suspenseful feel. "Oooohs", relentless 1-2 dance beat, and monster synth chords. Very infectious. Awesome! (6:14)
10. Electric guitar strums over space-pop, funky fuzz. (1:03)
11. Funk guitar over futuristic sound effects and melodies. Mid-tempo beat. Porn on a space station, maybe? (4:37)
*12. Tight syncopated beat, "old-school" synth jam, spoken samples, and sporadic computer voices. This is fucking smooth! (4:42)
*13. Wonderfully cosmic synths and hot sax & guitar riffs over groovin' metallic beat (sounds like keys shaking). Fila Brazillia is back, folks. (4:35)
14. Borderline R&B beat with cheesy piano chords, bass, sultry sax, and slow, uninspired rap. Cheeeeeeeesy (5:45)