Recensione album

Aside from the occasional booty jam or house remix, when was the last time you heard something speedy on R&B radio that wasn't recorded more than twenty years ago? Up-tempo R&B virtually vanished in America soon after disco died - the frenzy of James Brown, the sweet rush of Motown, the aspiration of Gamble and Huff's Philly soul, and the Afro-stomp of Seventies Kool and the Gang spawned few sons or daughters who rocked with the same abandon. In this age of formulaic cool and computer-generated jiggy, we've forgotten how to sweat.

MJ Cole and Artful Dodger want to make you do just that. With its dazzling production values, jazzy arrangements, champagne-smooth vocals and hypersyncopated rhythms, Cole's Sincere has got to be the most luxurious black sound since Soul II Soul - and it's a whole lot faster. Artful Dodger's It's All About the Stragglers goes even heavier on the hooks, thanks to a succession of sharp singers and Jamaican rappers, while jacking up the beats-per-minute.

The catch is that Cole and Artful Dodger's Mark Hill and Pete Devereux don't spring from the ghettos of the Dirty South. They're ex-ravers, middle-class white Londoners with classical-music backgrounds who found a common ground where their skills and interests could talk to each other. And they're decidedly not bling-bling - although their music, known back home as two-step or U.K. garage, sure is. The leaders of England's latest dance movement, Cole and Artful Dodger sandwich together house music's hedonistic rush, contemporary R&B's nervous syncopation, reggae's low-end rumble and drum-and-bass's pitch-altering mechanics in one booty-shaking package. Unlike the Eurocentric purity of trance, two-step splices global black expressions into a boom-time celebration of multiracial Britain that's as earthy as it is technologically grounded and, accordingly, packed with contradictions.

Nurtured by British pirate-radio stations and fueled by bedroom-bootleg remixes of accelerated R&B hits, two-step honors sonic sophistication even as it indulges illicit pleasures. As with most U.K. trends, its roots are in underground clubs and alternative night life, yet its up-tempo, upwardly mobile grooves dominate pop airwaves. British critics nominated Cole's Sincere for their indie-minded Mercury Prize, while Artful Dodger's improbably titled breakthrough, "Re-Rewind the Crowd Say Bo Selecta," introduced singer Craig David, a teen heartthrob tipped to become England's biggest R&B export since Sade, and kicked off an unbroken string of five U.K. hits.

The acoustic guitars, horns and pianos of Sincere float through a digital rain forest dense with ornate harmonies, uncommon chords and stop-start dynamics. Like a mix tape of mixed emotions, with its fusion of pristine softness and hard pumping, Sincere creates a complex tension that calls out for repeated listenings. Upstart diva Elisabeth Troy supplies sultry vocal musings, while beatless interludes and pirate-radio shout-outs provide breathing room between the boogie. A fan of classical minimalist Steve Reich as well as classic soul, Cole brings the two worlds together in swirling abstraction. "Don't do it/Be sincere/I'm crazy," Troy moans, making no sense but absolutely nailing the title track's unstable seesaw of moods. On the ballad "I See," she simmers with operatic grace. Check the pizzicato string motif on "Crazy Love" if you need further proof of Cole's classical credentials, or if you believe dance-music violins died with disco. It's been ages since a club soundtrack achieved this plushness.

Featuring nine vocalists spread across twelve tracks, Artful Dodger's It's All About the Stragglers favors single-minded instant gratification over subtle art. Spring-loaded rhythms ricochet like rubber rockets; toy-town R&B tunes suggest Destiny's Child or Sisq? munching on diet pills. Hill and Devereux boast the Ruff Ryders' bounce but at a much speedier pace, and although they're docked for lazy lyrics even as they deliver fleshier songs, Artful Dodger cook up fast-food fun that can compete with Cole's aural cuisine. The opening cut, "Think About Me," begins with singer Michelle Escoffery crooning a ballad but maintains its waltz time signature as the beat kicks in, resulting in two-step's first love song in 3/4 time. "Please Don't Turn Me On" similarly starts as an almost Babyface-ish soul-folk serenade led by acoustic guitar and R&B guy Lifford's shy vocal, then builds drama through sampled string stabs - even a live rhythm section. Yet it's Craig David who steals Stragglers. His vocal performance on "Re-Rewind" and "Woman Trouble" suggests peak-era Michael Jackson and latter-day George Michael, yet fathers its own anxious, acutely nuanced flavor, one that lingers long after the club closes. These are dance albums with taste. BARRY WALTERS (RS 867 - April 26, 2001)