Freaks

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Memento Materia is proud to announce a new signing to its sublabel Prototyp. Militant cheerleaders on the Move makes electronic body music in its purest form - the way DAF and Nitzer Ebb did it, but with even more energy and attitude.

Tracks:

After
Dabudei
Streets Of Istanbul
Before
Homebase
I Guess She...
Slowhand Hussein
Just You & I
Colores
Ocean Air
Smile
Where Are We?
Spacewater

Amazon.com

Already own the entire Kruder & Dorfmeister disography? No worries. The city of Vienna is sending more blunted beats your way in the form of Dzhian and Kamien. The downbeat capital's latest exports are much more than K&D clones, however. This is their own special brand of Sunday morning headfunk. Turkish-flavored tracks such as "Slowhand Hussein" and "Just You & I" open the Outcaste crew's bag of table tricks and let it breathe on the back porch of the Cafe del Mar. The jazz-laced "Where Are We?" and "After" imagine the Thievery Corporation out of their trademark debonair threads and in rainbow wigs and clown shoes. Dzihan & Kamien even try their hand at slightly more traditional pop structures on "Smile," in which an Edie Brickell-ish vocalist trips over a shifty typerwriter-as-rhythm-track beat. Equal parts quirk, groove, and experimentation make a pretty savory tonic. --Bob Michaels

Customer Reviews:

"Freaks" Is A Footrest.......2007-05-10

The Austrian-based duo of dZihan and Kamien have been around now for almost a decade, and not without good reason. They're certainly good at what they do, and have been since they were releasing cuts under the name MC Sultan.

I say they're good, and I say "at what they do," because they aren't really all that great, and "what they do" never really changes. They've been compared to Thievery Corporation, which is fair, since both groups work with downtempo lounge that borders on jazz house. But whereas Thievery Corporation incorporates not just experimentation but also a wide sampling of cultural flavors and flourishes, dZihan and Kamien prefer to keep it low-key and unassuming.

Fine. Lounge music is by its nature low-key and unassuming, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't also be inventive or diverse. For a couple of guys with such international tastes (born in Germany, raised in Switzerland, claim to prefer Turkish/Arabic music, perform mostly in European clubs), this album hits a plateau of placidity and plays itself out there.

Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, and for the soft, flapping curtains of the lounge genre, it's a workhorse of a record. Several of the songs ("Just You & I" and "Slowhand Hussein" in particular) are pretty impressionable, knee-quaking, aggressively laid-back. And, as I said, none of them could be called bad, per se.

But, much like the mostly-milquetoast Cafe Del Mar series, these guys aren't really aspiring for much more than an inspiration to nap-time, and even that is done a little unevenly; you've got everything from fusion jazz ("Where Are We?"), to electronic pillow talk ("Spacewater"), to synthetic pop ("Smile"). It's a decent collection, even if it doesn't mesh well, and it's got its share of shakes and sighs, but, when all is said and done, there's no "freak" here to be found, and certainly no "icons."

Infectiously cool..........2005-01-01

In amongst the huge amount of distinctly second-rate laid-back electronica and chill-out music that's out there are some real hidden gems. And here's one... an album full of cleverly arranged, addictive beats that will grab repeated space on your CD player. Why? Well, despite its distinctly "tacky" cover, "Freaks & Icons" is in fact one of the coolest albums around... closer to Thievery Corporation than Kruder & Dorfmeister, but with the same beautifully crafted, multi-layered instrumentation of their more popular peers, it incorporates East European & Asian influences into familiar, rock-solid jazz-funk and "chill out" structures that, seemingly effortlessly, roll along from start to finish. After a couple of times through, the infectious melodic "hooks" that underpin virtually every track take hold and, before you know it, you're hitting the replay button yet again.

It's a Small World Afterall.......2004-09-16

Freaks & Icons marked the beginning of Six Degrees Records' shift away from world fusion music (sigh) into nu-jazz. Dzihan & Kamien are a very solid downtempo act with excellent beats and atmospheric grooves, but to call it world-influenced is a bit of a stretch. I'd love to play you all some REALLY world-influenced downtempo music. Ok, "Dabudei" has that Ibiza groove, but aside from that, this album is standard-issue Anglo lounge. Which is not to say it isn't very nice. It is. But please, don't call it "eastern." I could play you some REAL Eastern downtempo you'll die for.

Wonderfully smooth.......2003-12-20

The tracks flow effortlessly from beginning to end, without a filler song in the bunch. After listening a few times you will never have the, "ugh, I hate the beat on the this" problem that plagues some lesser-quality dubby bands.

Highlights, after listening to the CD for awhile, are pretty much every song. I became really interested in dZihan & Kamien after hearing the song "Streets of Istanbul," though, which is a good introduction to the CD. "Slowhand Hussein" is also another good string-tinged tune.

These beats are great for studying to or falling asleep - this CD was a heavy part of the soundtrack of my just-finished semester of college, and it was good soundtrack music!