reviews / 2020

DJ SABRINA THE TEENAGE DJ - Charmed

Name: DJ SABRINA THE TEENAGE DJ – Charmed
Item: Charmed
Rating: 7
Author: Vassilios Karagiannis

2020 (Spells on the telly)

house, plunderphonics

by Vassilios Karagiannis

We live in bizarre times, times in which the star of one of the most famous sitcoms of the Nineties has not only stepped out of our TV screens, but has also started producing music. And not sporadically, but in great quantity: from the release of "Makin' Magick" to today, we're already at five albums (generally released on cassette), not counting the DJ mixes, EPs and a horde of standalone singles released along the way. Distributive bulimia? Maybe so, but the quality of what the wizardess-turned- deejay seems to almost justify it: the architect of a complex dance language, as rich in references (as in her creative use of sampling) as she is immediate in her dancefloor instincts, with "Charmed" DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ conceives her most ambitious project so far, three hours (!) of house music revisiting the entire 80s and 90s canon of the genre with boundless curiosity and an excellent recombinant approach, one that even many masters of the most subversive house have often failed to display. Whether you want to dance, try to identify as many sample as possible, or simply lose yourself within it, the album doesn't fail to meet the request.

If there's one thing that already very substantial works like "Makin' Magick" or even "Enchanted" had shown, it's how the (very) long runtime is not a problem at all - quite the opposite, it's enhanced through a shrewd process of sequencing and variation, which makes the flow of the tracks akin to that of a DJ mix. Granted, the strong wave of nostalgia stirred up by the listen, with its concentrated dose of 90s-ness (extended perhaps to the early 2000s, those of the Daft Punk of “Discovery" and Étienne de Crécy's "Tempovision") could prove overwhelming. And yet, here too the producer British artist knows how to use the work's runtime to her advantage, building a genuine epic, a release as narratively engaging as it is effective in its more danceable dimension, able to communicate on multiple levels. Melancholy and euphoria, then, interwoven over some of the beat most compelling tracks of recent times, with textures that juxtapose, with a curious plunderphonicsense, the most disparate stylistic attitudes.

This is how the spell holds up, which after the slow build in intensity of the opening "Next To Me" (which doesn't shy away from sophisti and obsessive vocals drowned in memory) and the cinematic coda of “After The Fall” comes the surge french touch from title track, among the most pop and dazzling moments in the producer's catalogue. And in case the pace feels too relentless, DJ Sabrina has that covered too: the future-funk echoes of “By The Pool” blend seamlessly with the Balearic calls of “Love Foundation” and the more abstract of “Pool Party”, which also makes room for unhinged detours like “This Is The (Remix)”, packed with references to teen-culture from 15-20 years ago, slotting in between the r&b-leaning grooves of “Too Long Looking Back” and the almost euro-clarity of “Long LookIIng back, Too”.

Lush garage-trailing cascades, coordinated with a taste that links the United States to Japan ("Feel The Pain I"), set the stage for the prog sensibility of "I Want U 2 Know" before a "How Did You Know?" closes out the first half with a wave of disillusionment that dilutes the preceding build-up of adrenaline into the most convincing sad-banger of her career.

As thrilling and engrossing as the first tape may be, it's in the second one, and even more so in its B-side, that DJ Sabrina's production talent shines at its best, closing the long narrative arc with a bang lasting over twenty-seven minutes. As if the electro-funk of "Forever", the deep basslines of "Down With Love" or the synth-ballad cadence of "Strayed Ocean" were merely intermediate chapters (which they aren't, as the subtler charm of "Wedding Night" proves), it's in "Charmed Life" and "End Of An Era" (who knows if that title is meant literally) that everything falls into place with the right precision, where the album's gigantic proportions reach their grand culmination. Cinematic breaks, swings in tone and rhythm, lyrical ostinatos almost worthy of a power-ballad, incisive melodic lines, more dynamic interludes and atmospheric digressions: crafting a sense of epic entirely her own, the producer builds entire short films in technicolor, lending brightness and wonder even to the smallest detail, scattering her magic across progressions that seem to last half their actual running time. After all, isn't that a kind of spell too?

Three hours in one sitting is a tough load to handle, and splitting it into the two blocks dictated by the tapes certainly makes for easier listening. It will take far more than a spell, though, to tear you from the clutches of "Charmed" once you've let it claim you. Not that the effort is demanding, quite the opposite: you'll want to replay these hundred and eighty minutes again and again.

Ride the wave of great music

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31/12/2020

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Vassilios Karagiannis, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition