Opera

Tosca | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 21, 1998)
• Original Release Date: July 28, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: K7
• ASIN: B000009RXM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,948 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #53 in Music > World Music > Europe > Continental Europe > Austria

Track Listings

1. Fuck Dub, Pts. 1 & 2

2. Amalienbad

3. Worksong

4. Gimmi Gimmi

5. Chocolate Elvis

6. Ambient Emely

7. Postgirl

8. Listen My Friend

9. Buona Sarah

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Their band name may be a nod to the duo's previous sample work of classical tunes, but Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber keep things funky on Opera. Spoken-word snippets, disco beats, and the occasional jazzy drum break find themselves on top of the bass-y spine that forms most of Tosca's tunes. But things get really interesting toward Opera's closure. The eight-minute-long "Ambient Emely" sounds like it was lifted from an Atom Egoyan film: Middle Eastern flute eventually gets enveloped in a collage of voices and white noise. That track blends into "Postgirl," in which a chop-shopped series of voices begins to sound like Tuvan throat singers before the beats kick in. It's largely mellow, but there's more than enough experimentation here to keep things interesting. --Jason Verlinde

Product Description

Tosca's debut ably charts the groovy darkside of blunted trip-hop, with spare hip-hop samples and deep bass lines contributing to tracks like 'Fuck Dub,' 'Worksong', and 'Chocolate Elvis'. This G-Stoned/Studio K7 release comes packaged in digipak.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A welcome change from predictable downbeat music..., September 4, 2000

By 

Peter Bonnar (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Opera (Audio CD)

Opera, more than it's sister release 'Suzuki' is a somewhat experimental probe into the unchartered territories of sampling in dance music.

Huber (not Kruder!) and Dorfmeister weave an intricate web of original and quirky samples into beat & bass driven structures that sandwich perfectly to produce a sound that's refreshingly new compared to the unlimited number of 'cut & paste' dance releases that saturate the market today.

The music is ambient and dubby whilst keeping a grip on the slightly chirpier end of the scale, think Thievery Corporation in upbeat mode or Kruder and Dorfmeister without the hangover and you won't be far off the mark.

This is a perfect CD for music junkies to wind down to and will not disappoint, mainly due to its originality and positivity. There are some similarities with the K+D Conversions album, 'worksong' in particular springs to mind. 'Chocolate Elvis' is a real gem with its streetsmart originality and earthiness.

On some tracks the sampling is massively stretched and doctored to become the rhythm so instead of a monotonous and predictable 4/4 beat, you can hear an old man speaking out a rhythm as if he is describing what the sound should be like. This may seem a little odd but these chaps know what they're doing and it actually works quite nicely and hits the mark.

A welcome change in direction from the now rather predictable downbeat arena.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars downtempo at its finest, April 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Opera (Audio CD)

anyone into downtempo absolutely MUST have this album. opera shows the full skills of richard dorfmeister as he blurs the bounds between jazz, funk, and r&b seamlessly. the tracks seemingly waft out of the speakers, and envelop you in their relaxed ease. flat out, this is the ultimate smoke album - buy it, close your eyes, and drift off.....

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You'll rarely let it out of your player!, May 1, 2000

By 

Ace75 "Ace" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Opera (Audio CD)

While "Opera" isn't quite the finely chiseled magnum opus of Dorfmeister's collaboration with Kruder on the "Sessions," it is an eminently innovative and well-structured piece. "Chocolate Elvis" has already become a classic, and the heady "Ambient Emely" reaches new levels of surrealim, with its combinations of bass, Arabic poetry (in the Intro), short waves, and opera intrusions. This, the longest track, may take a bit of getting used to, but with the right speakers and a good ear, you'll be at the mercy of the song's shifting nuances. A very fine work indeed--well worth buying. I give it four stars because a couple of tracks could do with a bit of excitement. A much better work than "Suzuki," Tosca's latest release.