For your average guy (the best example maybe being that guy in the white hat over there behind you), choosing electronic music is like buying a hamburger. Sure, there's good and there's bad - that great local place that always gets your order right and gives you a free drink to boot, as opposed to those 29 cent specials at McDonalds - but no juicy cheddar-and-bacon burger (on a toasted bun) can make a vegetarian like meat. You may know a good burger when you eat one, but that starts from the assumption that you like some hamburgers.
So let's get this clear immediately: Lazy Dog is not typical electronic music - and may be out to convert some vegetarians.
"Lazy Dog" refers to a club night at Notting Hill Arts Club in London - mind you, a Sunday club night. Lazy Dog founder Ben Watt (half of the immensely varied duo Everything But The Girl) calls the night "a soulful end-of-weekend party," and he should know - he and co-founder Jay Hannan have been doing it once a week for over two years.
The fact that Lazy Dog has been so successful on Sunday nights does say something about its character. Deep House Music is not the sort of mix you'd want playing full-volume at a Friday-night kegger. This is music that demands not grinding but actual dancing. It's something you can also actually listen to, rather than just feel shaking the floor under your feet.
Lazy Dog Deep House Music is a two-disc set: one CD mixed by Ben Watt and one by Jay Hannan. The contrasts between the two discs are due less to a gap in style than a difference in musical taste: Watt and Hannan have similar mixing sensibilities.
Hannan leans towards the jazzier end of musical selections, with work from artists like David Bendeth and Jon Cutler (honestly, ten points if you recognize either name). With the beats and over-melodies worked in, his mixes end up in the direction of quality '70s funk, like a thinner version of the Commodores.
On the other hand, Watt's work is slightly more consumer-happy, featuring at least one major name: Tracey Thorn, who is Watt's wife and the other half of Everything But The Girl (and so not a terribly surprising contributor). Thorn worked with British trip-hop heavyweight group Massive Attack on its second album, and her distinctive voice lends itself well to floating over line after line of smooth beats. Watt still brings a dose of jazz to his work, though, with groups like Sound Of Soul and Urban Blues Project.
So why would any of this convert your average radio listener into an electronica buff? It might have something to do with the style. Deep House isn't pounding bass and brute-force audio but rather a compositional mix. There's plenty of energy to dance to, but also a lot of music snuck into the middle. Don't take its jazz-funk flavor lightly. There are rich, rolling bass lines and soaring melodies that are often outlined by sweet, rhythmic vocals.
Lazy Dog also draws you in so inexorably that you'd better have a CD changer to play the two discs in a row. Sit down to listen to just one song, and you'll only notice that you've finished the album when you wonder why this song is so goddamn long. For some genres - popular radio especially - that kind of evenness weakens a group's appeal. Hit singles require a distinct sound. Not so with much of electronica, which has never been about individual songs. A continuous theme means that the party never stops. In this case, the flow is so good that you find yourself listening to the entire thing without even trying.
Go ahead. Let down your defenses a little and see just what Lazy Dog has to offer. Ignore the track counter and try to listen to just one song. If you make it past ten minutes without noticing, go ahead buy the CD and stop hogging the listening station at Newbury Comics. You may find that meat is pretty good for you after all.
