Les Gammas - Exercices De Styles (2000)

Exercices des Styles seems a fitting name for the many musical elements blended together on this album, where these German producers/arrangers -- Marc A. Frank and C. Jochen Helfert -- bring Latin rhythms, jazz arrangements, a disco aesthetic, orchestral depth, an electronica gloss, and seemingly endless creativity to their stable of musicians. The results are dizzying as each song seems an entirely unique vision with few shared formal characteristics, making this album almost feel like a compilation. Yet no matter how many new instruments or ideas Les Gammas bring to each song, their signature eclecticism and sense of aesthetic motif remain constant. Furthermore, a few vocal tracks here and there bring an additional sense of humane melody -- particularly on "Don't Waste My Love," which could have been a seminal early '70s Philadelphia International release -- along with variety to the album, which can best be thought of as anything but generic.