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Monday,
April, 9,
2007

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Chin Chin - Chin Chin

New-York based band Chin Chin’s eponymous debut is an intriguing affair. The album brings disco into the noughties and puts you in mind of what fellow New Yorkers Scissor Sisters might have sounded like if they had grown up listening to Ohio Players instead of Elton John

chin chin

Opening track ‘Miami’ sets the tone with a gentle brass intro that lasts a full 30 seconds before descending into the kind of pounding Latin rhythms that I always associate with the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. As the album progresses, through the lovely organ lead ‘Appetite’ and the oh so sexy ‘You Can’t Hold Her’, it becomes clear though that Chin Chin are fully in touch with modern music, rather than being trapped in the decade they so lovingly invoke. The falsetto vocals on ‘Curtis’ for instance have more in common with Pharrell William than Curtis Mayfield, despite what the title may suggest.

The core of the band is made up of brothers Torbitt Scwartz and Wilder Zoby who provide drums and vocals and guitar respectively and keyboardist and supplier of the already mentioned falsetto squeals, Jeremy Wilms. An impressive group of session musicians provide the backing to give this whole album a truly lush sound.

The album’s stand-out track is ‘Hey Hey’; the soft vocals of Schwartz and high pitched wailings of Wilms blend beautifully; Zoby’s guitar parts are like a tutorial in the less is more school of thought, while the rest of the band build slowly to a powerful and irresistible conclusion. The rest of the album passes in a delightful series of tracks which hint at inspirations ranging from Air to Herbie Hancock.

For anyone with a love of disco, soul and the myriad musical genres that these have spawned, Chin Chin are a band who you’ll want to raise a glass to. Despite their awful name they’ve managed to make disco relevant for the first time since 1979.



COMMENTS

this guy got the personell all wrong. read the liner notes. wilms plays guitar and bass, zoby is keys and singing, schwartz drums and singing.

—paul
Saturday 12 May 2007


My bad - trying to work out the personnel from the press release that accompanied the CD (without liner notes!) was pretty hard going….

—Ciaran
Tuesday 19 June 2007


 




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