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CMU Approved
Approved: Lilacs & Champagne
By Aly Barchi | Published on Monday 5 March 2012
The Mexican Summer-signed Lilacs & Champagne, whose eponymous debut came out in January, are hip hop samplesmiths Alex Hall and Emil Amos, also of US instrumental band Grails.
A series of filmic segues between eerie seventies acid-rock, oddball dub and deep southern alt-twang, the LP is an offshoot of the duo’s propensity, as proud post-grads of the J Dilla academy of music production, to unearth the most obscure, unheard-of hooks, beats and vintage TV themes (see the endlessly eclectic ‘Everywhere, Everyone’), and slot each into the ultimate grindhouse movie score that never was.
Album feature ‘Lilacs’ – which poaches its centrepiece from a 1974 track by Polish singer-songwriter Czeslaw Niemen – is introduced by a sly synth dirge, using its cymbal rhythm as a springboard to step into a temperate realm of psych-spun soul. Since L&C have little lined up in the way of a live calendar, the next best thing might just be to watch the official ‘Lilacs’ video. And here that is:
