Titan: Elevator
Rating: B+
Virgin Records
Titan’s style of spaced out, experimental grooves are Mo’ Deep than your mamma’s menudo pot. That is to say, this trio from Mexico City can mix it up with everything from Percy Faith to Starsky and Hutch and back it up with live instruments and not just computer-simulated smack. It’s like Beck on an overdose of pan dulces with Fanta chasers.
The threesome have had some experience and modest success with similar groups in the past but in the early 90’s they combined their efforts to create one kick-ass cool and intensely funky band. And all of this before electronic dance music was commercially viable in Mexico, let alone the states. Titan came to my attention when I was told that Michael Franti had produced this album. I was familiar with Franti’s highly political and socially consciences hiphop group “The Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy” and I figured anything that he was producing was going to be great.
I wasn’t disappointed. Also adding to the production are Craig Barrell and Rossa Harris better known to the electronica scene as Sukia. Titan further enhanced this CD with a bonus multimedia track that sets you up and lets you loose in a virtual café in Mexico City. Yeah, there are no English lyrics (you can get a rough translation from their website) and the enhanced portion (which is killer) is all in their native langue as well but the music more than speaks for itself.
V.L.
