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Buscemi \ Mistral du Sud [TWI 1250 CD]


Crépuscule presents Mistral du Sud, the 9th artist album by acclaimed Belgian DJ, producer and remixer Buscemi, whose eclectic dance music stylings embrace a mix of lounge, jazz, house, bossa, electro and latino grooves.

Since 2001 Buscemi (real name Dirk Swartenbroekx) has released eight solo long players as well as mix albums for Blue Note and Ministry of Sound, film and television soundtracks, and three collaborations with the Michel Bisceglia Ensemble. Remix clients have included Melody Gardot, Isabelle Antena, Calexico, Hooverphonic and Nicola Conte.

Seaside, his collaboration with Isabelle Antena from signature album Camino Real, remains a perennial favourite around the globe, and paved the way for his first Crépuscule album Luna Misteriosa in 2018.

Like Luna Misteriosa, the new album is co-created with Henrique Marques and features lead single La Jungle (TWI 1248), featuring vocalist Lauvé, as well as an eclectic selection of guests and collaborators including Tai and former Crass singer Steve Ignorant.

"Most of these songs were recorded during the COVID pandemic," explains Dirk. "The creative process gave me inspiration and strength during these strange times. Taize Oliviera (aka Tai) sings on two tracks. She's a Brazilian singer-songwriter based in Barcelona who mixes soul, urban and Latin rhythms. But also I collaborated with Steve Ignorant on Who d'You Think You're Talking To?, because I always loved punk and new wave music, and will remain a Crass adept forever!"


CD/MP3 tracklist

1. Not Gonna Make It (ft. Keith Canvas)
2. Lua Bonita (ft. Tai)
3. La Junge (ft. Lauvé)
4. Who's Gonna Save Me? (ft. TLP)
5. Taxi Driver (ft. Yves Gaillard + Steve Kashala)
6. O Verao (ft. Jokomo)
7. Who d'You Think You're Talking To? (ft. Steve Ignorant)
8. I Met the Devil (ft. Claudia Radulescu + Salvo)
9. La Bella Rosa (ft. Luigi Catalano)
10. Labios de Mel (ft. Tai)
11. Heartbreaker (ft. Wilma Jane)
12. Mistral du Sud


Available on CD and digital (MP3 or FLAC). To order CD please select correct shipping option (UK, Europe or Rest of World) and click on Add To Cart button below cover image. Digital copies are supplied by link via email.

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Mistral du Sud [TWI 1250 CD]
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Reviews:

"An artist who destroys musical barriers" (Gazet Van Antwerpen, 07/2021)

"What Buscemi serves up on Mistral du Sud is much more than just bossa. Indeed it sounds - and dances - like a Best Of, only with great new songs" (Humo, 07/2021)

"Smart move by Les Disques Du Crépuscule to release the ninth album by Belgian DJ/producer Buscemi at the beginning of the summer. The title alone makes you feel like you are in the south of France, and the music fits this notion perfectly" (Oor, 07/2021)

"Buscemi, the Belgian DJ and producer also known as Dirk Swartenbroekx, has been pretty successful on his home country's charts since debuting in 2001 with the album Our Girl In Havana. This new LP Mistral Du Sud finds him in collaboration with a wide range of vocalists. His expansive and finely chilled mix of house, lounge, electro styles and even the odd dash of jazz dance often results in some neat examples of thoroughly modern dance music on this collection and nothing featured here is anything less than a toe tapper.

That being said, let us get down specifics with regard to the contents of Mistral Du Sud. We begin with Not Gonna Make It, which features the voice of Keith Canvas. After a reflective preamble it kicks into lively percussion and has a decided jazz/funk flavour, which is all packed into a floor-filling rhythm. Then the following offering, Lua Bonita, bounces along nicely after another ear catching intro. A real electro groover in La Jungle very much enhanced by an icy cool vocal from Lauvé - it might slows the beat down a little, but this tune is pure gold and the performance mesmerising.

Who's Gonna Save Me? is a busy, upbeat slice of house/dance that includes a little old school style hip hop via a rap from TLP and is followed by Taxi Driver, which has also been released as a single. This number has a memorable rhythmic pattern and refrain, playing smoothly off a female spoken voice and male singing, plus using instrumental drop out effectively. Jokomo features on the jazz electro of O Verao Chegou and this is based around a simple repeated keyboard figure and stomping percussion beats, which all work really well.

I know the people who read Louder Than War will probably be most interested in the seventh track in this selection, the Steve Ignorant-voiced Who D'You Think You're Talking To? I'm pleased to report that it is very good, Steve's very much the renaissance man and his Midas touch continues all the way to the glitterball. The juxtaposition of upfront electronic drumbeats and his unmistakable, impassioned vocal (which is given an unusual echo effect here), mesh together like a dream. The propulsive and percussive rhythm and synth moves work a treat as the paranoid lyrical stance vividly portrays an increasingly claustrophobic world. The presumably intentional double negative "there ain't no escape" is an acute sign of the hopelessness one feels with the turmoil of the world at present and it concludes in a howl of frustration "I wanna scream, you're stifling me". This is one of the best tracks of the year so far in my view.

I Met The Devil lightens things, a bright and stylish modern disco melody with only the wavering synth drones offering signs more ominous. La Bella Rose, featuring Luigi Catalano, is possibly the most pop moment on the LP, with a great big beat that asserts itself over a balalaika (I think). Tai, who also sang on Lua Bonita, returns on the delectable light touch of Labios De Mel and Heartbreaker, which has some fine vocals from Wilma Jane, could be the ultimate electronica torch song. If you are looking for a common reference point, I would say it starts off a little like the 1994 single Seven Seconds by Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry, before wending its way to something wholly of its own.

The album finishes with the title track, where synth drones, quickfire drums and bass motor all along. A hoarse voice sounds both weary and resilient at the same time, before organ and accordion are thrust in there and then the beat returns in earnest, before sadly dying away.

Mistral Du Sud is really very good, a dance-orientated album which has depth and is consistently entertaining and interesting. A riot of sound and ideas really. It also comes built with well-constructed grooves that could even get a very poor exponent of dance like myself wanting to get moving. Buscemi continues to dodge in and out of the mainstream, he's clearly a sharp character with a pronounced ear for the unusual. I don't profess to being an expert on what makes modern dance music click, I'm too old, but I know a good beat when I hear it and there are many of them included on this record." (Louder Than War, 06/2021)