Comparsa

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-01-13 rating:
Another wonderful album from Deep Forest
Is there any musical instrument capable of expressing the infinite subtlety and variety of the human voice? What other instrument can convey the rapture of watching the sun rise over the Ugandan rainforest, or describe the deeply held unconditional love for another human being?

Comparsa, like all the Deep Forest albums, combines the timeless traditional melodies of non-Western societies (on this occasion, mainly from Central America and Madagascar) with the modern conventions of electronic dance and ambient music. Comparsa is another exceptional contribution from Deep Forest. What makes Comparsa so worthwhile are the vocal performances, imbued with deep warmth and compassion, that speak straight to the heart. There is no need to understand the words. For instance, each inflection of the performance on "Tres Marias" expresses a wrenching sadness, and yet is somehow drenched in hope. "Madazulu" sees a group of singers almost raging out of the speakers, communicating their anger at our treatment of the world.
The samples are given more space than on the first album (Deep Forest), which used smaller, shorter samples of vocals from the Baka Pygmies of the Cameroon rainforest, more as part of the overall textural effect, then as the melodic driving force of each track, as they do here in Comparsa, and in Boheme and Music Detected also.
The title track "Comparsa" is a bouncy, soca-style accordion-led ditty. The accordion, that archetypal French instrument, drifts in and out of many songs.
Most of the songs have prominent bass and snare drums playing funky offbeat rhythms, with traditional drums adding cross rhythms. Electronic high frequencies, altered flutes and synthesizers also regularly feature in the instrumentation.
The ambient tracks sound like Jean-Michel Jarre, if he had travelled around Madagascan villages for 5 years, listening to the local music.

Comparsa may not seem as immediately accessible as the other Deep Forest albums. It may even strike you as remarkably naïve and simple in its harmonic and rhythmic language. But is this really such a bad thing? Comparsa will reward those with patience, as the singers gradually communicate their message with un-extinguishable faith, hope and love.

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review by: date: 2002-06-05 rating:
If you like Deep Forest's earlier stuff, you will like this.
Unlike "Boheme", I appreciated this CD as soon as I played the first track. "Comparsa" takes Deep Forest back to African influences, and thus has more in common with the first album than "Boheme". Some of the tracks also seem to have a Latin American background. Most of the tracks are very good, though some suffer from too much electronics and too much accordion (or something like that). This album is noticeably more upbeat than the previous two, which were quite melancholy at times. If you like Deep Forest's earlier stuff, you will enjoy this album.

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review by: date: 2002-01-25 rating:
Comparsa
Like the others, it did take a while to get into it, mainly because Deep Forest focused more on world music with this than their usual electronica. Now I can't listen to anythign else. Its a landmark album that I really think all should have, especially music students.

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review by: date: 2001-06-05 rating:
Slow to impress but it will get you in the end
After listening to Deep Forest, Deep Forest I decided to but this one. At first I was quite disappointed - it is very different from the Deep Forest Album. Is has a lot more vocals in it and a lot more instruments, there is a good introduction of brass on the first song. Overall, I got into it and I enjoy it now, it is quite a summer album ..happy and lively if you know what I mean!! but overall not as good as previous work I must admit.


review by: date: 2001-01-30 rating:
Absolutely Fantastic!
I bought this album, as I really enjoyed the first two albums, and quite simply it's fantastic. It took me a while to get into it, but it's one of the few CDs that I now regularly listen to. I can really recommend this!

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