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The first item I heard from Russ Gabriel was "Jelba" off of the Trip Do Brasil II compilation some three years ago. Next up was "Supermarket" on Faze Action's 2001 nu-brazil dance comp titled "Pure Braziliance" (spelled "Brazilliance" on Amazon). Both tracks had an heir of sophistication while Supermarket in particular grabbed me. 2002 saw "Into the Unknown" hit the shops... except in the US.
This is a good cd with one dominant vibe - a touch of classy orchestration blended with production and samples. It goes in and out of broken beats, live instruments & violins, electronic vibes and a bit of flavor from all over the place. The opening cuts a nice chimmey introduction before "Second Summer" has some bongos going and a club beat throbbin' with that guitar touch giving it just the right latin feel. You've got some more breaks and chants in "Never Again" and "Into the Unknown" has a nice electric jazz feel to it after the smooth build-up. "Live from the Nugget"'s another track that was very good and it sounded even better on the remix wheel when Lars Bartkuhn got his hands on it.
To recommend it - that's tricky because I do enjoy "Into the Unknown" but this version in particular is a very pricey Japanese import. However it's the one I prefer as it has "Supermarket" as a stand-alone track and that's a hard song to come by. Same with "Novera". I think the powers that be should've also included "Jelba" with the import. Also, after hearing "Jelba" and "Supermarket", I think this cd was a bit of a letdown since most of the songs here didn't live up to my expectations from those two. Russ's capable of much better, and I hope he'll put some more material out soon & really hit the remix market. But if you do dig this cd you'll definitely want to check the Compost artists; especially Truby Trio, Fauna Flash, Jazzanova, Intuit & maybe Wei Chi's new one. Also check Faze Action (another Compost star) with Pure Braziliance and the Glucklich series & hear "Live at the Nugget" remixed on Brazilution 5.2.
