Customer Reviews

Numero Deux

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

 

 

I have to admit, when I first picked this up I wasn't so impressed. And that was a while ago. I'd heard a few of their tracks on various compilations - and if you add in their label (Edizioni-Ishtar/Milano 2000), it was a no-brainer. So I popped it in, gave it a whirl and was left thinking: "Good. Not spectacular, but good."

The lesson I learned came with having it in a not so great stereo. After putting it on in the car, and then in the home system, wow! Spacey beats, Airy rythms, subtle voices, precision samples - very impressive collection of sound and landscapes on the tracks! "Invocation" is a song that just jams and glides.

The style isn't chill-out or cafe/bossa - it's more along the lines of DJ/soundtrack like with beats. Think Blue States (Nothing Changes Under the Sun) meets Fragmentorchestra meets "Modular Systems" with a splash of the new Massive Attack. You can feel the Italian soundtrack influence, but it never sways very far from the modern. It's a CD that you put in, sit back, and go about with whatever you were doing. Never too heavy or too dark, just right.

Notable tracks in my opinion were Invocation, Cosi Ti Amo, Verso Il Sole, Chorus of Flames and - the cd has the perfect ending with Speak Into the Microphone. A good dj sound, a terrific album! Can't wait for their new one titled "Tre" - due out some time this spring.

I first found out about The Dining Rooms when I bought the compilation Hi Fidelity Lounge Vol.3 ('Mr. Dupont' is the first track on the CD). Since I loved that compilation, and 'Mr. Dupont' is one of my favourites in there, I could not but buy TDR's CD 'Numero Deux' when I first saw it in a record store. To date, I 've listened to it many times and I always discover new things in every song. This is an excellent CD, full of ambient and jazzy tunes, which will create a very cinematic atmosphere. The terms 'lounge' and 'chill out' seem too narrow to be used in this case. This CD is a lot more. The two Italian brains behind this, Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti, explore minimal forms of what it could be music for films from the late '60s and the early '70s. As a matter of fact, they say that the inspiration for the title of this CD came from director Jan-Luc Goddard. In my book, this is the proudful Italian answer to France's Air.

Milan's The Dining Rooms have sometimes drawn comparison to Thievery Corporation or Air. They are neither. Rather, one would have to imagine the music of Serge Gainsbourg cut up and reconstructed by DJ Shadow, playing as the soundtrack to a french new-wave film by Jean-Luc
Goddard. The brooding mood escapes typical electronica lounge clichés and enters darker
territories, driven by mid-tempo hip-hop breaks and haunting minor chords bass lines.
Occasional vocals, whether dialogue or sung melody, play as the nostalgic protagonists on an abandoned movie set. The production quality is tasteful and slick and leaves enough free space between the listeners ears,to let the film play in your head.

I actually had this in my hand at the record store and put it back after looking at the cover and fearing this would be an entire album of some downtempo diva, cheeks puckered, droning on as if she had been stuck in a revolving door with Portishead. The label (below) even admits "sultry female vocals" which is a red flag, but since I was able to get it used on here for 7 bucks, the chance of finding a good downtempo album was worth the risk of owning one more mediocre piece of nu-soul.
The first 4 tracks are trip hop/jazz/downtempo with crisp beats, instrumental. She shows up on number 5 but she's mixed in with the music instead of the other way around, and personally, I like it. Again on 6 or 7 but filtered. Track 8 appears on "Supperclub Presents Lounge", the soundtrack to an Amsterdam supperclub which turned me on to the Dining Rooms in the first place; laid back, late night, lounge--no vocals. She shows back up on track 11, but accompanied by amplifier feedback--by this time you're kind of emersed in the ambience of a smoke filled basement lounge, and it's easy to pretend you are too out of it to notice.
So if you're looking for trip-hop/downtempo/jazz fusion, very chill, with limited vocals, then this is a pleasant surprise. If you're looking for something based more around a vocalist, then I'd suggest Moodorama or Hefner.

I have to admit, when I first picked this up I wasn't so impressed. And that was a while ago. I'd heard a few of their tracks on various compilations - and if you add in their label (Edizioni-Ishtar/Milano 2000/Schema), it was a no-brainer. So I popped it in, gave it a whirl and was left thinking: "Good. Not spectacular, but good."

The lesson I learned came with having it in a not so great stereo. After putting it on in the car, and then in the home system, wow! Spacey beats, Airy rythms, subtle voices, precision samples - very impressive collection of sound and landscapes on the tracks! "Invocation" is a song that just jams and glides.

The style isn't chill-out or cafe/bossa - it's more along the lines of DJ/soundtrack like with beats. Think Blue States (Nothing Changes Under the Sun) meets Fragmentorchestra meets "Modular Systems" with a splash of the new Massive Attack. You can feel the Italian soundtrack influence, but it never sways very far from the modern. It's a CD that you put in, sit back, and go about with whatever you were doing. Never too heavy or too dark, just right.

Notable tracks in my opinion were Invocation, Cosi Ti Amo, Verso Il Sole, Chorus of Flames and - the cd has the perfect ending with Speak Into the Microphone. A good dj sound, a terrific album! Can't wait for their new one titled "Tre" - due out some time this spring.

This album is probably one of my top 5 favorites in my collection. It may have some filler tracks. However, the entire cd maintains a cool flow with good beats, and as another reviewer stated, precision cuts. I have profound respect for The Dining Rooms, in that they create their own genre as they go along. "If one can become a master, yet look at everything with virgin eyes.. the power of all the world is available to them". The Dining Rooms do not allow norms and preconcieved ideas of what their 'type' of music *should* sound like, rather they push by with whatever their gifted senses feel is the best and most impressive sound.
If you like trip-hop or european lounge, you will probably love this CD. It is not for all occasions. After dark or in the car on a rainy day, this music would be appreciated best. Happy listening!

This album is fantastic! Sweet, simple and catchy little melodies. Great beat. Perfect for chillin' out! Always keep it with my Air, Thievery Corporation, Robert Miles' "Organik", Two Lone Swordsmen... It is by far better than Subterannean Modern!

Numero Deux is the captivating sophomore album from Italian downtempo maestros The Dining Rooms. The Milan based duo of Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti emerged out of the cityís thriving punk/new wave scene, where both members paid their dues in various underground bands before joining forces to record their debut long player Subterranean Modern Volume 1 in the fall of 1999. Released on the Milano 2000 label, the recordís forward thinking fusion of crisp hip hop breaks, bluesy guitars and melancholic keyboard ambiance garnered international acclaim and was championed by taste makers like Coldcut, Thievery Corporation, and Gilles Peterson. The sequel, Numero Deux successfully expands upon the formula: adding live jazz funk textures, dreamy keyboard melodies, Balearic guitar vibes and sultry female vocals to create an engaging montage of sublime Mediterranean flavored trip hop soundscapes. Imagine DJ Shadow and Ennio Morricone scoring the soundtrack to a Jean Luc Godard film and you get the picture!

THis is a great album. It's about as good as Tre, which is pretty dang cool. The other reviewers are seriously tripping on the whole Eno thing. Chill. This is good stuff.

Numero Deux, the second album from The Dining Rooms, is even deeper and darker than their first. "Pure & Easy," the opening track, is a rhythmic powerhouse, immediate and gripping. "Sei Tu" invokes a dreamy Italian cityscape, while "False Start," with its sultry female vocals, brings to mind a love affair gone wrong. This American version of Numero Deux omits one track from the Italian and adds instead one of the best tracks off Subterranean Modern, Volume One, "M. Dupont." Even though the majority of the album focuses on the darker moods, certain tracks, like "Verso Il Sole," bring a bit of lightness to the proceedings. "Chorus of Flames," on the other hand, has a creepiness to it before the sweeping strings flow in, while "Speak into the Microphone" returns to the jazz club somewhere downtown. A gorgeous album.