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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ancient meets Modern, Deep Forest style!, January 19, 2003
'Music Detected' was my first CD by Deep Forest and, even though I loved it while most other DF fans were disappointed and some even appalled by their drastic change in sound, after listening to their highly praised 'Boheme' I now have a better understanding of why!
I still love 'Music Detected' and wouldn't dream of changing my rating, but after hearing 'Boheme' it simply blew me away and just might have affected the way I thought about MD if I had purchased this before that... 'Music Detected' has a more eclectic sound than 'Boheme' for (unlike this album) MD mixed an interesting, if not hypnotic fusion of world, rock, dance and soul with most of the songs sung in english, which must have taken a lot of die-hard Deep Forest fans for a loop because their initial style has a more ethnic-world sound with modern beats and ancient pygmy vocals that are rich (and yes, a little strange) but full of life and vigor! Both are very good but to compare them is somewhat difficult for they're both so very different! 'Music Detected' will never dish up classic DF tracks like "Marta's Song" and "Boheme" but if you have an open-mind than DF fans will hopefully learn to grow with their expanding overflow of experimentations... I for one was completely enthralled with both albums and am deeply looking forward to checking out their other releases, which are probably just as amazing! Aside from the god-awful "Bulgarian Melody" (which should have never been sung as a ballad), the rest of 'Boheme' is simply mind-boggling and all fans of world music should get themselves a copy...Pronto!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deep Forest's Magnum Opus! I'm not kidding!, March 18, 2004
I was absolutely amazed with Deep Forests debut album. It was and still is one of the most groundbreaking world music albums of all time and it's a huge crime that it isn't carried by retailers. It is still an amazing CD to this very day. It blended Pygmy voices with modern dance and the result was a masterpiece. This follow-up to that album entitled "Boheme" raises the bar even higher by having Deep Forest travel from the remoteness of Sub-Saharan Africa, to the forests of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe and the result is beyond what I could give out and "Boheme" is in my opinion, Deep Forest's best album to date although "Music Detected" may offer competition. The album has a much darker and more dramatic undertone than their debut album does but I love it. "Anasthasia" starts the album on a dark, eerie, and slightly ominous note with a very tribal sound with haunting flutes and a haunting ambience that gives the song a feel of like drifting through the forests of the Alps with nearby storms. Eventually the song gets more and more intense until it suddenly ends at just less than two minutes length. The echoes of "Anashthasia" perfect blend into the drama of my favorite track on this album "Bohemian Ballet". This is one of their best `studio' album tracks that they've ever created. At first, the clanging dance sound effects would imply a Latin folk track but it becomes a very intense, dramatic, and dark song. Things get even better when it becomes a vibrant and energetic dance song with haunting and bizarrely amplified Eastern European voices backed by the intense melody. This song is my favorite song on this entire album. "Marta's Song" is sheer beauty. After the dramatic darkness of "Bohemian Ballet", we emerge into the sunniness of "Marta's Song" which is another one of the highlights of this album. The song has a really excellent and exotic rhythm and the same is said about the haunting Bulgarian chants as well. Add that to a really warm and energetic melody and you have a really uplifting classic for the coming ages. "Gathering" is a much darker and more ominous track with a very futuristic production yet it also blends in ancient chorus and a really dark but never forboding atmosphere to create another intriguing and amazing classic. "Lament" is a really heartbreaking yet joyous song with a very strange electronic voice effect and bizarrely amplified voice effects. The melody is really awesome as well and the result is another highlight on this album. "Bulgarian Melody" is the strangest track on this CD. Although it starts with a dark and very eerie note and growing more and more dramatic, it calms down and becomes a very odd piano ballad with Bulgarian vocals amidst sweet and beautiful background piano in the background which almost gives the song a slight 1940s tone to it. While I totally disagree with a reviewer saying that this song is god-awful, it does feel sort of out of place against the other songs on this album but nonetheless it is a really great song. As it reverts back to the eerie sound that was present at the beginning, it morphs into a sweeter melody which becomes the track "Deep Folk Song" which is just a one minute interlude track but has a really vibrant French accordion style to it. In a way it's more of like an interlude intro into the vibrant classic "Freedom Cry". This is a really fun and actually a very bright, sunny and really happy song without being cheesy and is actually a very sophisticated song with an edgy and funky beat and a French accordion sound to it that gives the idea of a dance in an open paved plaza in Paris right after a storm moves out. A really amazing song it is. The song gracefully transitions into the next song "Twosome" which is another highlight on this album. This song has a rather slightly ominous melody but also a very joyous and exotic dance club sound. The Eastern Indian chanting gives the song a really colorful sound. It's hard to really explain this track but it's a really awesome song that needs a listen. "Café Europa" is a really strange track with a stormy vibe and Asian exotic instruments. The song becomes a very club-oriented dance song that surely would make for excellent dance club music. While it's a very good song, it doesn't stack up as high as the other songs on this album. Still, it's a great song. The live version is incredible! "Kathrina" is a very spooky track. It begins with a very misty sharp-sounding flute or other wind instrument and becomes a very dark and haunting track with African beats and strange ominous melody. This is the darkest track on this album and it's a good one at that! The album closes with what I can safely say is the best track on this album which is the title track to this CD. While much of the album is dark and somewhat stormy in nature, the closing title track has a very happy and absolutely uplifting vibe and has a funky and exotic rhythm and colorful vocal effects. To me, this is like the sun shining bright after a major storm moving away into the east. This song brings an already phenomenal album to a glorious finish. Their debut album may have been what brought them into the spotlight but the way I look at it, "Boheme" was where they reached their peak although "Music Detected" may offer competition but these two albums have enormously different styles that it's impossible to compare them but they both showed that Deep Forest were unafraid to go into uncharted territory with their music. "Boheme" to me, built on the greatness of their debut and the result is what I consider to possibly be their best album that they've ever put out to date. I strongly suggest that you get a hold of a copy of this album. I don't know how much I can recommend it but I cannot do this album justice with this review. That's all I can say.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved Deep Forest I, and love this follow-up too..., September 28, 2001
If you're thinking of buying this piece of music, let me qualify my generous rating by stating that I have owned and enjoyed their first album for several years now. This second work of theirs has much of what made me a fan of their debut effort: great melodies, lush orchestrations via synthesizers, groovy rhythms, and really cool use of sampled vocals. While the first recording primarily used samples of jungle peoples' folk tunes and chants, Boheme gathers voices from a variety of places: Hungarian folk tunes, Totowa Indian songs, a choir from China, even a (gasp!) live Eastern European female vocalist. The result is richer than their first CD, with more variety in terms of tempo, timbre (i.e., the sonic choices), and mood.
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