Gnarls Barkley

01.07.2006

Live at Miles Davis Hall

This nickname, which might at first sight sound a bit strange , conceals two strong personalities, Cee-Lo Green, the singer of Goodie Mob, and the producer behind Danger Mouse. Cee-Lo Green is a rapper who went through a musical conversion because he had enough of slamming out slogans and wanted to use his talents differently. Using a perfusion of his own soul tones and the nasal twang of the sons of Goodie Mob and Outkast, Cee-Lo brought out two solo albums that were pretty well received by the critics before he got into the Gnarls Barkley project with Danger Mouse. And as for Brian Burton, now know under the pseudonym of Danger Mouse, he created a stir in 2004 when he orchestrated an improbable telescoping of the Beatles White Album instrumentals and the vocals on Jay-Z's Black Album to create a super-sprog, predictably entitled The Grey Album. EMI then went after him and demanded a million dollars for using the Fab Four samples. However, Danger mouse managed to get everyone on his side when he made off with the Grammy award for the best producer for his work on the last Gorillaz.

After this came the Gnarls Barkley project, which put nearly all the musc critcs into a trance with the release of the hit title "Crazy", a neo-soul UFO impregnated with the voice of Cee-Lo and backed up by the discreet sound of violins. As spearhead of the albums, "St Elsewhere", "Crazy" finds its place alongside the genial reinterpretations of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone", of the no-holds-barred "Go Go Gadget Gospel" or of "Smiley Faces". Multi-facetted, going off in several directions, this first album can qualified as a real success. More soul than rap, but damn good. (FFJM © 2006)