It sure sounds fishy, but it's actually quite delicious…
Written: Mar 11 '08
Product Rating:
Pros: Crowder's music is very tasty in this exotic presentation
Cons: No matter how you slice it, some just don't enjoy raw fish
The Bottom Line: If you enjoy David Crowder's "Illuminate" album and if you're open to trying new things, then "Sunset and Sushi" just might satisfy your adventurous palate…
bob_tomato's Full Review: Sunsets & Sushi: Experiments in Spectral Deconstru...
Have you ever had sushi? I mean, really good sushi - the really fresh, really exotic creations of a skilled sushi chef at a genuine Japanese restaurant? There's something very satisfying about well-prepared sushi; it's an adventure, slightly tinged with uncertainty and a hint of danger - some find that they can't stomach it, but over time, I've come to love sushi. I don't eat it very often, but when I do, I savor every moment of the experience.
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Sunsets and Sushi
I've found the same to be true of David Crowder's "experiments in spectral deconstruction" - the subtitle of Sunsets and Sushi, a collection of eight tracks originally found on his studio album Illuminate. These tracks have been completely flayed, stripping away the eclectic folk-rock skin of the originals and wrapping the vocals and selected instruments in electronica mixes. And I know that the new flavor does not go down well with many of Crowder's fans - many music fans want their artists they way the same way they want their meals: they want familiar, comfortable foods that they can count on to fill them up time after time.
Crowder's albums could never be labeled as the macaroni and cheese of the Christian worship movement, but even his eclectic tendencies can become familiar from album to album. "Illuminate" is one of my favorite CCM albums of the past several years, something I'll pull out and enjoy on a regular basis, yet to hear two thirds of the album so completely altered is a mind-blowing experience if one isn't prepared for what's served on this particular plate.
Consider the first track, No One Like You - on Illuminate, it's driving rock and roll is a serving of fajita nachos, steaming, spicy and sooooo delicious, a popular dish indeed. So when the chef serves up this sugary sweet concoction, featuring a light and frothy synthesizer line seemingly and shamelessly swiped from aha's Take on Me, you quickly realize that this isn't going to be your usual meal. Those looking for mac and cheese might be looking for the door when they get a taste of this appetizer.
But you really should stick around for the rest of the courses, because they get progressively more and more interesting…
I hesitate to use the word remixes to describe these tracks, because there is very little of the original tracks that is being used. The slices are very thin, cut precisely and presented carefully in new, practically alien ways. One of the things I truly enjoy about the Sunsets and Sushi is that most of the songs are presented in the relative minor key of the original major keys; this imbues each of these tracks with a more subtle, more savory flavor, a taste that some will never enjoy but one that is well worth the effort.
The "Dirty Beats Mix" of Open Skies is my favorite - in fact, I listen to this almost disturbingly dark version so often, I've forgotten what the original sounds like as I write this. The "dirty beats" are found in the growling bass synth synchronized with hand claps and a slow-rolling rhythm that will have your head nodding in time. The robotic "Neo-Mechanical Mix" for Revolutionary Love never really kicks into high gear, feeling as if it could break out into a full blown raveup at any moment, and I really wish it had, but the experience is again so different that it works in the context of this collection.
Probably the best thing about Sunsets and Sushi is that it also maintains the overall flavor of the whole Illuminate album. It moves from the more exuberant opening tracks into the more thoughtful, deeper tracks of the last half of the album, and manages to maintain that same feeling of awe and wonder found in the original. Deliver Me keeps all of it's original grandeur, even as it grinds through a completely new rhythmic setting - in fact, I think that this version might be even more powerful than the first. Stars is perfectly placed at the end of Sunsets and Sushi, and the ambient sounds of the original are crossed with crackles and pops that give the new version a sense of melancholy that fits the mood of the collection perfectly.
You can't ever really say that you don't like something until you try it. David Crowder's Sunsets and Sushi is a completely new presentation of familiar favorites, and your initial reaction could easily be one of revulsion - "you want me to eat THAT?"
It's certainly an acquired taste, but I think you really should give it a try.
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David Crowder* Band - Sunsets and Sushi
Originally released February 15, 2005 by sixsteprecords / Sparrow Records
Track Listing
No One Like You (Thanksgiving Mix) / O Praise Him (Oceanic Mix) / Open Skies (Dirty Beats Mix) / Revolutionary Love (Neo-Mechanical Mix) / How Great (Direct from Satellite City) / Intoxicating (Pneumatic Mix) / Deliver Me (Antidromic Mix) / Stars (From the Mount Wilson Observatory)
David Crowder Band is back on the scene with a brand new twist, delivering a recording like no other. Following their best selling releases, Illuminat...More at Christianbook.com
David Crowder Band is back on the scene with a brand new twist delivering a recording like no other with David Crowder*Band Remixed - Sunsets & Sushi....More at Buy.com
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