Mixtape Review: Last Train To Paris

Posted On: August 19, 2009
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 1

By shelz.

They are Lectro Black and they have come to take your mind, your body and your soul. With a big fat kick drum, all kinds of Diddy rants and synthesized blips and bleeps, this two man crew (Felix da Housecat is the master behind the boards) is on a sonic journey from Rome to New York and you, my friend, are invited along for the ride. So break off a glow stick, turn on the strobe, and find the local X dealer. It’s time to get your rave on.

The Last Train To Paris is a frenetic love letter full of contrived anxiety and desire. The concept is Diddy’s need to get to Paris for one last tango with his French tart before he catches a flight back home to New York. There is urgency in his words, driven by the layered, somewht free form techno groove. The music does a decent job crafting the mood, however, the structure of the emotion is hampered horribly by the lyrics, if you want to call them that. There is no track list, no specific songs. It’s an hour long tape with no breaks which proves hella monotonous after a while and Diddy’s manufactured emotional range that runs from monotone to moaning and panting is, at times, just as tedious.

You won’t find any rap here. It’s not even spoken word really. There are moments of old school house during which Diddy lays down one of those dance club demands that’s looped over the track, but mainly it’s just a stream of consciousness kind of rambling during which he jumps back and forth from this train he needs to catch to how awesome his music is. The haphazard arrangement of the lyrics simply doesn’t lend itself well to the fact he is supposed to be telling a story.

Also questionable is what Diddy has to say during his journey. He declares Lectro Black a musical revolution that isn’t into “that commercial, crowd pleasing, ass kissing DJ, throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care shit.” Of course, this sounds a bit odd coming out of Diddy’s mouth considering he built a portion of his empire on just that kind of music. However, he is trying something new and you can’t really knock him for the noble attempt. When he suggests the following he really sounds like he believes what he is saying:

We are a combination of funk, soul, hip-hop, electro, techno, punk rock and anything with mutherfukkin attitude, soul and emotion. We are a musical revolution. You may not see us coming but you’ll mutherfukkin hear us coming. And we have not come to play with you. We have come to take over your mind, your body and ur mutherfukkin soul and we will take you with us. You are coming with us.

The average Hip Hop fan will turn down the invitation. However, this music wasn’t made for the Hip Hop nation. New millennium house fans may just enjoy this, but breaking into such an exclusive underground genre when you are the king of commercialized music will probably prove a bit difficult for him.

The production isn’t all that great either. The tape is probably 65% instrumental and Felix gets a little throw back with his style. He displays his noisy house side as opposed to his more melodic one that’s been front and center recently. It can get too busy at times as if Felix is trying to hard. Or maybe the onslaught of elements is meant to forward the concept of anxiety that is dispersed thorough the tape. During these moments though, the emotion is there, but the music is hard on the ears. He strips away all the unnecessary shit he has piled on top of the thump at times though, and we get a glimpse of the house that folks in Chicago or Baltimore could have co-signed back in the day. However, this doesn’t happen enough for you to settle in for an enjoyable listening experience. Also, when the music does take a less convoluted turn, Diddy becomes the focal point and that’s not a good thing here.

Will Lectro Black be able to steal your soul? Make you dance? Make you lose control? Probably not. It’s an exclusive acquired sound that doesn’t rank high with most rap fans even if it is done well. However, if showing up with Felix da Housecat can get Diddy a pass with the house crowd, he may have tapped a new market and hopefully for Diddy they are more forgiving than the Hip-Hop community.

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