Paul MacInnes 

Supreme Cuts: Divine Ecstasy – review

Every contemporary style of dance music is in play on this strangely conceived album by the Chicago duo, writes Paul MacInnes
  
  

Supreme Cuts
Experimenters … Supreme Cuts Photograph: PR

The "exquisite corpse" technique was invented by the surrealists with the aim of making things as confusing as possible. OK, they may not have said as much, but the practice of turn-based creation (kind of like the game Consequences but on canvas) doesn't aspire to cohesion, that's for sure. In recording this album, their first full release in the UK, Chicago duo Supreme Cuts played around with the technique and, although they haven't followed one bar of moombahton with two of polka music, it seems every contemporary style of dance music is in play. There's the soulful house of Gone, the percussive electronica of the title track, EDM on Envision, trippy trappishness on Down and the alt R&B of Cocktails. There are interesting parts to each and Supreme Cuts are deft with a dreamy climax. But it's in the crafting of coherent songs that Divine Ecstasy struggles. ISIS, for example, in which an icy Junior Boysish piano track is overlaid with romantic raps, has two styles that may complement each other but also deprive the song of any dynamism or tension. Interesting, but not involving.

 

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