Pepe Deluxe for Crossover Prog

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   Pepe Deluxe are an interesting outfit who mash psychedelic rop, hip-hop production and all kinds of types of pop together. Their fourth CD, the newly released Queen Of The Wave is subtitled "An Esoteric Pop Opera In Three Parts." It is progressive pop in the vein of Janelle Monae but proggier than that.

Check it out in action and please listen to complete tracks before commenting.

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Textbook Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: October 08 2009 Status: Offline Points: 3281	Topic: Pepe Deluxe for Crossover Prog Posted: February 29 2012 at 21:13
	Pepe Deluxe are an interesting outfit who mash psychedelic rop, hip-hop production and all kinds of types of pop together. Their fourth CD, the newly released Queen Of The Wave is subtitled "An Esoteric Pop Opera In Three Parts." It is progressive pop in the vein of Janelle Monae but proggier than that. Check it out in action and please listen to complete tracks before commenting.

yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 7063	Posted: March 01 2012 at 10:47
	Pepe Deluxé is a Finnish electronic music oriented band which was created by two DJ friends, Vellu Maurola (aka DJ Slow) and Tomi Castrén (formerly Paajanenaka, aka JA-Jazz), in the mid 90s in Helsinki, Finland. In 1995, James Spectrum (aka Jari Salo), joined the band and they started to experiment with sounds of hip hop, big beat, breakbeat and downtempo. DJ Slow and JA-Jazz dropped out of the group, to be replaced by New York-based composer and Swedish ex-pat Paul Malmström, a long-time collaborator with the group, in 2008. Malmström and Svengali sound scientist James Spectrum spent a lot of time gathering all the arcane gear, legendary instrumentation, and the perfect cast of eccentric performers in order to create Queen of the Wave - an esoteric pop opera in three parts. "Pepe was forced to delay the album’s release by two years in order for the world’s largest instrument to be renovated, so that Malmström could play the first original composition written for it. This instrument is the Great Stalacpipe Organ: built across 3.5 acres of Virginia’s Luray Caverns by Pentagon physicist Leland W. Sprinkle in the early ‘50s. They went to all that trouble just to record what would amount to a two-minute interlude at the end of the opera’s second act, yet it makes all the difference. There is nothing ordinary or preset about any part of this album, a remarkable fact in this age of Pro Tools, Auto-Tune, and cracked software. Queen of the Wave contains 100% pan-o-ramic full spectrum sound captured in living stereo." Full story of the album, by Alan Ranta of PopMatters (from where the above extract was taken), here: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/154118-pepe-deluxe-queen-of-the-wave. Definitely needs serious consideration... http://www.myspace.com/pepedeluxe (where there are samples and a full bio).

Textbook Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: October 08 2009 Status: Offline Points: 3281	Posted: March 01 2012 at 13:35
	Yes, I should have mentioned the Stalacpipe Organ, that alone should give prog heads wet dreams.

Slartibartfast Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / In Memoriam Joined: April 29 2006 Location: Atlantais Status: Offline Points: 29630	Posted: March 01 2012 at 15:22
	OMG, the president of the company at my last job was a big Pepe Deluxe fan though not really a prog fanatic. I dismissed them because of that. I never really tried them but I do have a copy of Supersound Everybody Pass Me By if you are interested in buying it from me, let me know. Edited by Slartibartfast - March 01 2012 at 15:23
	Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

harmonium.ro Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: August 18 2008 Location: Anna Calvi Status: Offline Points: 22989	Posted: March 02 2012 at 09:50
	Very interesting stuff this psychedelic "rop" but I can't hear it as progressive rock, it's more of a mash-up of musical styles.

Textbook Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: October 08 2009 Status: Offline Points: 3281	Posted: March 02 2012 at 18:21
	It's not progressive rock in the traditional sense, but it does strike me as progressive pop and we have quite a few artists in that vein here already.