Tosca – jac

Tosca had for a very long time a big problem: the band was always presented as the side-project of Richard Dorfmeister and everyone just wanted to get a new Kruder & Dorfmeister record. 1998 K&D dropped their epochal “K&D Sessions” album and since then we’ve heard nary a peep from the duo. Peter Kruder has his Peace Orchestra project, Dorfmeister has Tosca, and they’ve both done piles of remixes. Just not together, not anymore. But of course it takes some time to get the focus away from a group like Kruder & Dorfmeister, a duo that revolutionized downtempo music, reinvigorating both acid jazz and trip-hop in one fell swoop with a series of blisteringly hot remixes and a precious handful of original tracks.

Finally with “j.a.c.” the new duo from Richard Dorfmeister stepped out of the shades of K&D, forever. Tosca showed with this album from 2005 that the Viennese G-Stone sound was alive and well, and the label’s trademark luscious basslines, funky jazz breaks and infinitely deep percussion are in full effect on the record. The album plays well as a cohesive unit, beginning slowly before ramping up to a more energetic middle section, and finally sliding into a relaxed denouement.

The half of the twelve tracks are with vocals,which is a very high rate for Tosca, but it is working out very well. There’s not much else to report on the novelty front, but Tosca remains in excellent form. The record is just one of the stonemarks of downtempo music in its later phase, not starting a revolution anymore, but perfected the sound. But if Kruder & Dorfmeister would reunite, well, that would be just great – but maybe they never could fullfill the expectations. And it is not fair to Rupert Huber, who surely deserves to get recognized not only as a the other guy from Tosca, the sideproject from Richard Dorfmeister.

The big sleep.