Customer Reviews

Last Century Modern

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With everyone one of his album, it looks like Towa Tei is trying to put you in a certain frame of mind as far as time periods go. His first solo record was named Future Listening, and the idea was apparent he was trying to make music for the future throughout the record. And it worked. His next record was Sound Museum which I imagine was supposed to conjure up sounds of ancient musicians, althrough the actual recording didn't serve the title at all. This time he's named his record Last Century Modern, music for the final years of the 20th century. It's more forward-looking than the look-how-far-we've-come idea that the name conjures though.

"Last Century Modern" is a song of accordions and Balanscu Quartet sounds whirring around your head in space. A Brazilian voiced singer only listed as "UA" sings the title over and over with the emphasis on "mo-darn." I must note however that it seems like UA is only a replacement for my beloved Bebel Gilberto, who does not make an appearance on this album. I guess now that she's making her own records, she doesn't have time for Towa. This is quite unfortunate as she can breathe life into even the deadest Towa Tei song.

A breathy French singer is in the spotlight of the glitch/lounge song "A Ring," something that warrants numerous listenings if only for the strangeness and sound effects that you don't expect. Al throughout the record however you can expect Towa's signature filler lyrics. About half the songs feature computer voices, "Last Century Modern" lists various media formats in its lyrics and "Angel's" lyrics are little more than "S-P-E-L-L A-N-G-E-L." He's quite the producer, but hardly ever a great wordsmith, that Towa.

There's also as usual the fair share of female-voiced American pop imitations, though they're more fleshed out and more successful than the posh on Sound Museum. "CHATR" is named after and was made with a new text-to-voice program that's been developed as the most realistic computer voice ever made. They gave Towa exclusive permission to use it for this song before the program was ever released, but that doesn't make it a great song. It's listenable fun though. The finest song may be "Stretch Building Bamboo," something created by Towa completely on his computer. It's pretty much all sound effects flying all around your head that all build into a totally funky psychedelic collage.

"LCM" brings back the sweet melody from "Last Century Modern" and leaves it up to the Balanscu Quartet and a children's chorus. It would make a sweet final track, but then we get two remixes. One is by Towa's rock-n-roll counterpart wizard, Cornelius. He doesn't do anything too magical to "Butterfly." I would think he'd be more cut-out to re-do "Stretch Building Bamboo" maybe. In the end, Last Century Modern hits all the points that Sound Museum tried to hit but couldn't. Even the rap works. It's funny when wants to be, poppy when it wants to be, and always smart.

I picked up this CD after thinking, "let's pick up something interesting and different." Let's just say I was FAR from being dissapointed. This Towa Tei CD (the reason I was previously familiar with him was because of his affiliation with Dee-Lite and a short interview he did on MTV Asia) has certainly spread its ears out on the rainbow spectrum. It contains music anywhere from hip hop to jazz to electronica, with French and Funk and everything else to boot. Listening to it is highly enjoyable if you're in the mood for something different once and again, but let me warn you, if you're in the mood for consistency, this is NOT your cup of tea. I wanted something different, I got it. Every now and then when I'm bored of the same old routines, I pop this CD in-- and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Towa Tei returns to form with an elegant, melodic, and romantic beauty of an album. There's retro-chic bossa nova, sophisticated female vocals, and even a couple of funky jams. Towa even brings back the wonderful vocalist Cory Daye on "Congratulations," a cut that recalls her glory days with Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. At only 40-some minutes, one wishes for more, but that's what remixes are for, I guess, so, "dadadadada("A Ring")", buy this one if you loved "Future Listening."

i was in tower records on sunset blvd in los angeles when i went over to the listening booths to hear new music. there was towa tei's last century modern in magazine one, cd one; however, they were all sold out. not knowing what to think of this mystery cd that everyone seemed to know about but me, i gave it a listen and immediately began to drown into a different world. a world i wondered why i hadnt found before. the music on this album is so easy to listen to, and so warm. its one of those cds you just put on and leave alone, not changing any of the tracks because each track flows together creating a grand picture, not tiny individual ones. i was thrilled to hear Chara, one of my favourite Jpop artists, do vocals on "let me know". yet all of the tracks on last century modern are beautifully haunting. this was the first towa tei cd i'd ever bought but since buying this cd, i am hungry for more.

On his latest solo release, former Deee-Lite DJ Towa Tei has once again managed to create a diverse palette of songs that showcase his formidable electronic talents.

Tei has always been a little unpredictable in his song crafting, able to switch from the standard to the bizarre in a matter of seconds, and Last Century Modern is no exception. The first and title track has Tei's and a computer's voice alternating as they read off a list of technological achievements in the last few years, set to a background of accordions and strings. "A Ring", "Butterfly" and "Angel" casually intersperse female vocals with drum and bass undertones. "Congratulations!" has all the elements of a cheesy radio advertisement - corny, yet catchy; while "Funkin' For Jamaica", despite a fairly ridiculous rap in the beginning, lives up to its title. Finally, "LCM" is a reprise of the first track, bringing the CD sonically full circle. Suffice it to say that variety is definitely one of Tei's strong points.

Also keeping in line with previous releases (for 1998's Sound Museum, Tei worked with Kylie Minogue and Mos Def, among others), the vocal contributions on Last Century Modern are numerous and varied. Ayumi Tanabe gives a superb performance on "Butterfly", and Chara sounds almost identical to Kahimi Karie on "Let Me Know". There's even some scat singing on "Angel", courtesy of Viv. The most unique vocalists on this CD, though, are not human. On "Angel", a good portion of the vocals are done by a Speak 'n Spell, while "CHATR" uses a speech-synthesis system of the same name, speaking in both English and Japanese. It's enough to make your head spin.

The only complaint I have with Last Century Modern is that it's quite short. The US release of this CD comes with two bonus tracks, which are decent remixes of "Butterfly" and "Let Me Know", but the originals are much better, and without these extras the CD is only 36 minutes long. Still, when considering the quality and diversity of the pieces, it's a relatively small complaint. I imagine drum and bass fans will find the most to like here, but I'd recommend this CD to anyone who's looking for a little diversity.

If you love Towa Tei or not,,,these songs should get you moving. You can here the influences from his previous works (bossa nova and Hip Hop) but now is leaning more to the JUNGLE (drumnbass) side. If you know Towa from Deee-Lite and his later solo works...There's no doubt he would evolve to where He's at. L.C.M. is not Just a DANCE Album but a whole work of art...a complete story of Trance...Bass...and Sound!

towa is the modern day mozart. this album is so freaky fresh that it makes me want to bop forever. if mathematics had music, this would be it.

Recently, I've begun venturing into DJ music and chanced upon this album by Towa Tei. The most popular DJ music seems to come from UK, so a DJ from Japan seemed interesting.

Towa Tei has a really unique blend of funk, classical and pop. Some of the lyrics may be nonsensical (as in Congratulations) but the music is boppy enough to lift your spirits.

My personal favourites are "A Ring" (which has french vocals), "CHATR" (korean) and "Funkin' for Jamaica" (kinda reggae).

Just shows what a variety of music styles Tei incorporates.

Other than his work with Deee-Lite, I first heard Tei with his "Luv Connection" single back in 1995. His 1998 CD "Sound Museum" showed Tei to be a genius at combining musical styles that have no business being in the same CD store with each other, let alone mixed into one song.

"Last Century Modern" gets even more risky, and winds up being very hit-or-miss. It starts out with accordians, harps, and strings to create a sort of wierded out lounge music with French lyrics. You sit there liking it and wondering why! Great stuff! Then Tei adds beats, keyboards, and Speak and Spell (yes, the toy) with "Angel" and "Butterfly" to create some smooth grooves with obvious remix potential.

Unfortunately, Tei's experimentation overtakes his songwriting for the next four tracks. A big deal is made out of the use of a speech synthesizer (on "CHATR"), and I'm not sure why. Who hasn't used one? "Contact" (with Die) overstays its welcome by about five minutes, not unlike all the cuts on Reprazent's "New Forms". These four tracks sound like Tei's just goofing around. With his whimsical grafting of musical styles absent, that's not very interesting.

The last several tracks work well by merging trumpets, beats, funk, retro, and vocals in French, English, and Japanese.

I couldn't classify Towa Tei to save my life, but whatever he is - he's good. Although "Last Century Modern" has great moments and thrills just by being so daring, "Sound Museum" is the more consistent and enjoyable offering. If Tei can manage to take "LCM"'s wild experimentation and mix it with the control of "Sound Museum", he'd have an instant classic!

This is my first exposure to Towa Tei, purchased on a whim. At first I was a little surprised, I was expecting a bit more of a homogenous and fluid disc. Fortunately I was able to enjoy the variety that Towa explodes with after the first two or three tracks. Setting up with a little lounge music and bassanova, he goes all over the boards, brilliantly incorporating a diversity of musical genres without making the listener feel too transplanted. The only time I felt something out of place was one of the most enjoyable tracks on the album, Funkin' for Jamaica. The previous track, Congratulations!, was touted as the signature track on the album, but I did not find it to have superiority to the other cuts. In fact, it seems a little monotonous with too little change over the stretch of the track, although its quick climax at the end leaves one wanting more.

Overall, I'm happy with it, and I'm interested in looking into more from Towa Tei.