Yes, yes! I've made it! The first band ever to listen to my feedback! Or maybe it's just a coincidence and I'm narcissistic fuck. For those of you who don't read my stupid reviews, Loungerie II is a jazz band hailing from Bucharest, Romania. And when I say ''jazz'', I mean ''jazz influenced experimental electronica neo-noir with some bits of psych-indie thrown in the mix just for the hell of it''. Sounds confusing?
Well, don't worry, because Devaro is a big improvement over their 2012 EP. Gone are the rap segments (which were okay but felt totally out of place) and the sudden shifts in pace that have the potential to confuse the fuck out of a person who has the attention span of a newborn puppy like me. It's more focused, structured and straightforward than their previous release, but that doesn't mean they've shied away from experimenting with different sounds.
The opening track, Slow Burner, is a 17 minute long pysch piece that I wouldn't even dare try to describe without ingurgitating the right amount of drugs. Now listen to Late Hours and please tell me how come they've been included in the same damn album. One minute I'm listening to Funkadelic after a bad week at Woodstock, and the next minute Diana Krall is singing about sweet nights spent in the city. Songs like Mite People and Violet follow the same formula as Slow Burner, except for certain segments where the guys start jamming and riffing and drumming the songs into the Oblivion; these two are clearly the most atmospheric and well crafted songs of Devaro because, somehow, they've managed to add a subtle post-rock flavor-thingie and yeah, I know, I have no idea what I'm talking about but just trust me on this one, okay? On the other end of the spectrum, Continental Night Shift kicks off with what I asume to be a distorted guitar riff, Tom Morello style, followed by some weird ambient sounds and then... funk. And jazz. I'd label this under the ''neo-funkadelia'' genre (a genre which I totally didn't invent on the spot), because it has psych, jazz and funk elements mashed together into a single 15 minute song, as if they've summarized the whole damn album into a single song to help out the ones that are too lazy or maybe don't have the time to listen Devaro from start to finish. If you're not familiar with Loungerie II's stuff, I highly recommend this track, it's a good starting point.
All in all, Devaro is a great debut album that combines jazz, psych and other styles that I've probably never heard about into one trippy motherfucker of an album that I'll be having on repeat for a while.
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