Luciano - Tribute to the Sun

LUCIANO - TRIBUTE TO THE SUN (CADENZA)

2004’s “Blind Behaviour” showed that Lucien Nicolet could branch out beyond the crystalline tech-house that he has become famous for, but frustratingly, I have always felt that his music has never progressed beyond the sort of flippant, sun-bleached throwaway sketches that he seems to have an ear for. This album is, I would hazard a guess at, a hybrid at least between those two ideas. Utilising a far-reaching range of collaborators that range from vocalist Martina Topley-Bird to Israeli percussionist Omir Hason,  it’s a worldly affair, taking in African chanting, Latino flair, Caribbean percussion alongside the everpresent penumbra of a minimalist beat in the background. 

As mentioned before, Nicolet’s approach can often be argued as somewhat lightweight. And, in his production here it’s featherlike, with the melodies floating around a chiming network of rhythms that seem paper-thin. There’s no need to lay down a thumping beat here, and after an initial period in which tracks fail to really gauge the attention, one does get inexorably drawn like a slightly reticent dancer into a crowd that then propulses the album forward. After the insistent but nagging “Los Ninos de Fuera”, Nicolet then loses the energy just a little with the meandering “Celestial”, which at 12 minutes long does outstay its welcome a little, but within it there’s a microscopic journey waiting to be heard that revolves around a sample of Keren Ann’s “Liberty”. It’s somewhat fluffy, and at times I feel that this breed of minimal producers often approach these little melodic tropes that they are fond of with too much attention, resulting in compositions that overegg their component a little. “Conspirer” is for all fans of Cadenza, but one of the real delights of the album is “Hang For Bruno” which lurches around in a drunken fashion, reverberating with a sonorous Trombone/Trumpet refrain. It mutates in a obvious climactic fashion, but like Villalobos at his best, is individual enough to make it truly distinctive. Alongside it is “Africa Sweat”, which features Senegalese vocalist Ali Bouno Santo. It’s a fairly straightforward 4/4 affair attempt at african/electronic fusion, and after an initial tingle of the spine created by some furious Kora work, I felt disappointed by the somewhat one-dimensional path it decided to take. There’s time left for Luciano to indulge himself in some more abstract dark house with “Metodisma” and “Oenologue” that close proceedings.

Although I’ll admit that the languid style of Nicolet’s more dancefloor-orientated output has passed me by in recent years, the aforementioned “Blind Behaviour” was an eye-opener, and one had hoped that we would see more in this vein from him, which is what “Tribute to the Sun” is. Like many artists who attempt to branch out and utilise a number of collaborators (Laurent Garnier earlier this year for example), it’s often the case that the direction is lost, and I fear that’s what has happened here. Whilst this is an interesting and at times diverting collection of tracks with some fresh musical ideas, the palette is applied too widely, and as a result the tracks skip back and forth in some cases losing momentum. By including some of his more Cadenza-orientated album as well, it gives the impression that it was necessary to put these in to attract the more conservative listeners in his audience. “Tribute to the Sun” is a bright sparkle, but is too diluted to hold more than a cursory initial few listens.

Toby Frith