Thievery Corporation

Editor's Review:

Electronic music is often thought of as mechanical, and is a genre of music too readily confined by its youth and the development it has yet to undergo. That is not to take away from the strides electronic musicians have made, but more often than not, the accepted form is house, trance, jungle or any of the others within the family of "techno." Thievery Corporation breaks that mold, creating warm, intricate compositions that expand the boundaries of what electronic music can be.

The brain child of producers Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, Thievery Corporation fuses aspects of trance music - spacey, dubbed out beats thick with crisp cymbal work and understated bass bombs - with electronic melodies and infusions ranging from bossa nova to jazz, incorporating lounge-y sounds that hark back to British and Italian period music from the '60s and '70s. The result is something akin to a soundtrack for a film that doesn't exist. The overall feel is much more organic than the term "electronic" would lead one to believe, and that may be due to the inclusion of live instrumentation throughout the program. The addition of guitar and bass on some tracks, percussion on others, and the prevalent utilization of soft female jazz vocals raise The Mirror Conspiracy well above the benchmark of what is normally considered electronic music, and raises with it the appeal to a vast range of listeners.

- Max Sidman


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Record Label ESL Music Released August 2000

Tracks 1. Treasures 2. Le Monde 3. Indra 4. Lebanese Blonde 5. Focus on Sight 6. Air Batucada 7. So Com Voce 8. Samba Tranquille 9. Shadows of Ourselves 10. The Hong Kong Triad 11. Illumination 12. The Mirror Conspiracy 13. Tomorrow