After hearing the track "Dirt" on the Deconstruction Presents compilation, I resolved that it would be best to get my sticky little fingers onto Death In Vegas' full-length. Well, two heaping servings of turkey, creamed onions, sweet potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and green-bean casserole (with those crunchy little onions on top) later, I have a review for you!

Surprise was my first reaction. The opening track, "All That Glitters," has the same flat drums and fatty saloon-bass as G. Love's "Baby's Got Sauce." I keep expecting the electronic beast to rear its ugly head, but not in this track, no. Intriguing. What you will discover, if you choose to take the challenge, is that Dead Elvis is not an easily classifiable album. Most of the guitars and bass are done live by the band with a bluesy, hep beat that you could slap an arm by. Then there's the reggae influence. Ugh. There are two tracks that stand out like seeping boils on this record, waiting to be popped: "GBH" and "Twist And Crawl." Do I need distorted hyper-reggae? Like a barium enema, perhaps. However, the rest of the CD shines (be it in that dark, sinister, sooty way). As I mentioned, "Dirt" grabbed my attention initially and still holds it -- something about the Woodstock sample, set to thick distorto-guitar over techno beats says "new" to me. Anyway, my review-o-tron just farted out the stats and here they are:

2 tracks displaying strong blues/jazz characteristics
2 annoying reggae/techno tracks
4 techno tracks with rok overtones
1 jazz/sitar experiment track
2 haunting space-trippy almost-ambient tracks
1 experiment in muffled techno-beat

It's a pretty odd album. All sorts of sounds thrown together, no reigning style over all, the energy level goes from hot to downright comatose and back again, and it's got a heaping helping of haunted-house herbs. My buddy Scott listened to it with me and said, "I like most of it, but those reggae tracks suck and it gets too trippy at the end." I tend to agree.

-James P. Wisdom