Customer Reviews

Motion

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Considering the previous album Happy Hour was a bit lacking in some places this album is a very happy surprise. By this time Deodato had fully embraced synthesizer and electronic rhythm elements in his music. But how important was that? So had almost everyone else. He'd basically made his name instrumentally on the electric piano and as an orchestral arranger. Disco had actually been a very comfortable domain for him. But by the mid 80's dance music was beginning to change shape. Europe was actually expanding on the dance music of the day in many ways,from new wave onward. One such style that never quite took off stateside was known as Italo-Disco. And on this album Deodato actually embraced that style completely.

"SOS,Fore In The Sky" is one of those hand clap,very club friendly groove where the keyboards actually become a successful rhythm element. On the title track there's actually somewhat more of a new wave influence as well. Songs such as "Never Knew Love" and "Are You For Real" actually showcase more of an urban jazz-boogie funk style flavor to them. And the key things that bring these tracks to life are the fact they're wonderfully composed. Sames goes for "Bus Stop",the most fully realized example of what this album is all about. It has this strong jazz-funk style melody with Deodato's unique stamp in that area with this very dreamy electronic Italo disco instrumental flavor. The album ends with the more electro funk flavord "Make You Feel Good" with some very compelling vocal arrangements.

After the 70's the solo output from Eumir Deodato began to slow,to the point where now he concentrates nearly all his musical energy into his arranging and production as opposed to being an individual artist. It's not that he doesn't have the ability or the presentation. A lot of it has to do with his performance talent being as an instrumentalist. And after the 80's the music culture tide swang the same way it had after WW2-more towards popular singers than musicians. After all it was a lot easier for a singer to get one of the main trademarks of the time-an MTV video. With a few notable exceptions (being Jan Hammer,Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis) instrumentalists weren't finding themselves very excepted in this new visual musical medium unless they sang. So artists such as Deodato who depended on listeners as opposed to viewers found things a bit awkward in that area. Still this was an excellent album for him. And in many ways for the era.