VoDoX's Essentials...

Naomi - On the way to destroying Royskopp

Is it me or is 2002 turning out to be a stellar year for music? So far we've heard laud-worthy efforts from N.E.R.D., Timo Maas, Playgroup, High Contrast and Recloose, all early candidates for year-end Top 10 lists (best of all, these records represent an aggressively panoramic range of vibes, from brainy pop-hop to punk-funked disco). A few rotations into Everyone Loves You and it sounds like we can safely add Berlin duo Naomi to that lofty league.

At first listen, it's easy to wonder why Naomi isn't an automatic lock for those endless "chill-out" compilations like Zero 7 and Bent; Naomi crafts similar sad-eyed soup of smoky pop-hop (no tripping, please!). It's a sonic landscape where influences run from St. Etienne at their most lovelorn ("White," featuring the soothing voice of Selda Kaya) to maudlin sing-a-longs that the Pet Shop Boys would give their Issey Miyake sock collection for ("Everyone Loves You When You're Down"). Kaya also adds her sultry whisper to the moody house pulse of "Heavy Little Lights," a track that's screaming for a 12-inch release (subtle hint).

They turn up the irony on the disco-fied "We Are So Beautiful" (another one the Pet Shop Boys forgot to write) before delivering the next big chill-out anthem, Athe uplifting blast of beatific bliss, "Go." It's again powered by the soaring vocals of my new girlfriend, Selda Kaya (did I just say that out loud?). Ending on the gently pleading "Anybody Here?," Everyone Loves You is one worthy of marking time by.

http://www.humpty-records.de/shop/ainfo.php?kid=mole040-2

Another review __



"It´s wonderful when music manages to surprise us in these days" rejoiced a Raveline (big Germany dance magazine) critic over naomi´s resplendent first vinyl EP "That´s Right" before he confessed that listening to this EP had left him "flabbergasted". One of the leading German music magazines, de:bug, associated the follow-up 12inch "Avenue L´Amour" (ranked no. 4 on German Club Charts) with the aura of the French ‘cinéma auteurs’. Soon, naomi tracks were licensed for a considerate number of compilations such as "New Testament of Funk Vol. 3", "Classical Comfort" or "Coffeeshop Vol. 4" earning them enthused critiques on an international level. Wind filled the sails, and naomi steered the course for their debut album "Everyone Loves You". Originally, the two naomi guys from Berlin, Bernd Lechler and Nico Tobias, were heading for a straightforward Downbeat album with smooth samples and a slow motion atmosphere. But then fate or whatever intervened in all sort of ways - and we may consider ourselves some lucky bastards for that! Bernd and Nico developed a kick for pop music and songwriting, added the seducing voice of Selda Kaya, full of charm and seduction, and managed to combine slow motion beats with sudden bursts of blazing funk. "Everyone Loves You" presents itself as an eclectic but highly addictive concoction of programmed, sampled and played parts, synthetic moods and elegiac vocal tracks, Electronic sounds and pop, melancholy and irony, grace and boisterousness. Ennio Morricone, Mogwai, Underworld and the Pet Shop Boys seem to have left their traces, but when authentic bagpipes start coming in you are bound to throw all preconceptions overboard and surrender to naomi´s unique and captivating style. Dunk your remote controls in the dustbin, enter naomi´s auditory cinema and cut a caper.