Chin chin (original)

Album review

For their full-length debut following a series of singles and EPs, New York dance trio Chin Chin exceed all expectations, crafting a note-perfect fusion of funk, soul, hip-hop, electronica, and substantial pop hooks, overlaid with a quirky sense of humor and an all-inclusive sensibility that finds the group open to even the most unexpected influences. Comparisons to Gnarls Barkley are entirely valid -- keyboardist and lead singer Wilder Zoby even sounds a little like Cee-Lo Green at times, especially on the falsetto-led, horn-spiked funk groove "You Can't Hold Her," but in terms of musical imagination and artistic vision, Chin Chin are that better-known duo's equals, not imitators. (Admittedly, they lack Gnarls Barkley's amazing sense of graphic design and witty promo shots.) Even Danger Mouse would be impressed with the eclecticism of these 13 tracks, which sprawl effortlessly across genres and decades without ever stooping to the use of immediately identifiable samples: for example, opening track "Miami" fuses the sensibilities of Kid Creole & the Coconuts (tongue in cheek escapist lyrics and a salsa-fied dance groove) and Steely Dan (crystalline production, jazzy arrangement, and an extended tasty-licks guitar solo right out of the Jeff "Skunk" Baxter playbook), an improbable combination that shouldn't work at all, but does, wonderfully. "Donchusee" melds a Daft Punk-style electronically treated vocal and goofy lyrics about a monster "the size of a normal man with a head made of country ham" who will "turn you into an order of tripe" to a loping, bass-driven arrangement reminiscent of Sly & the Family Stone. The masterful "Ohio" starts with a mellow, soulful guitar and organ arrangement like a vintage Aretha Franklin ballad before exploding into something else entirely that matches Air's sense of dynamics and space to a tune like a mid-'70s power ballad by Paul McCartney & Wings. That old-school AM radio sensibility is also expressed in "Le Petit Mort," which matches a Peter Frampton-style talk-box guitar line to a quiet storm soul ballad that just happens to be about premature ejaculation, and "Toot d'Amore," an extended workout for Philly soul horns, wah wah guitar, and funky electric piano. Other highlights include the jazzy vibraphone solos and vintage synth squiggles that decorate the disco ballad "Appetite," and the shimmering, playful dance-pop of "Cotillon." In truth, nearly every track is a perfectly realized little marvel filled with more wit and invention than entire albums by some of Chin Chin's contemporaries on the contemporary dance scene. 2008 would have to be an unprecedented year for dance music for Chin Chin not to appear at or near the top of most critics' year-end lists.
© Stewart Mason /TiVo