Extravagant union between skeletal and hard production and weak delivery by this unknown duo, easily forgotten. A Lighter Shade of Brown aka LSOB is a duo from Riverside, California, formed in 1987 and composed by the rappers Robert "Don't Try to Xerox (DTTX)" Ramirez and Robert "One Dope Meixcan (ODM)" Gutierrez.
After recorded some demos, the duo rips a deal with the independent Pump Records, releasing "T.J. Nights" as first single in 1990. In the same season, the group drops his debut CD. The production is handled by DJ Romeo, Fabe Love, Jammin' James Carter, DJ Battlecat and Tony G, with instrumentals played by Houston (guitar, bass and keyboards), Joe Alfaro and Stan the Guitar Man (both credited to guitar and bass in the single "T.J. Nights"). The guests are Chulo, King Ed, Huggy Boy, Shiro and Tear Drop.
The production isn't impossible to imagine, it remained three years earlier, minimal, simple, trivially generic, without decent variations, the hooks are almost useless here and to divide this record there's an extravagant skit. The second part of the disc is no better than the first, but I don't feel like it's exactly worse. It's not too dissimilar, the duo continues to deliver in a syncopated, weakly way, it tries to juggle between pop / soulful hooks, and meaningless bridges until the final remix, a rare decent cut here, with a cheerful rhythm that's the closest thing to sound fresh.
Released by Pump Records, distributed by Quality Records for the markets of US, Indonesia and Australia, the album manages to enter the pop chart and makes its way among the Heatseekers Albums to the top ten. Leaded by a couple of other singles (after "TJ Nights"), "Latin Active" and "On a Sunday Afternoon", both are welcomed positively by the crowds, entering the Hot 100, in particular the second became a hit in New Zealand, reaching the top of the singles chart and becoming one of the best-selling singles of 1992, also certified gold. The singer Shiro is guest in "Latin Active", then is included also in "On a Sunday Afternoon", although she is never credited on all the album versions, but rather appears as a main guest (and as author) on the single released in 1991.
In any case, the single works very well thanks to a masterfully played sample from The Young Rascals' "Groovin'" combined with a hard, harsh, not very solid drum, deep wonderful bassline, slow calm rapping by the duo, the bridge is heavenly, then Shiro kills the chorus. I don't understand why it didn't enter the 40 on the Hot 100 in its home country, probably the group name had zero appeal, there is no other explanation, Jammin' James Carter did a great job behind the keyboards. True and still hidden highlights of this effort.
In the following years, LSOB continued their recording career and in 1994 they signed with Mercury Records (PolyGram re-released this album in the same year), aiming at the Australian market, but without managing to leave a (further) mark on the industry, returning to independence soon after.
Rating: 4/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment