[.ca] Death By Chocolate

From Amazon.com:
"My friend Jack eats sugar lumps... Sugar man hasn't got a care." It's understandable if these lyrics--sung by a vocalist who sounds like a mischievous 14-year-old British girl over a perky bump-bump-bump-ba-dump-pa guitar riff--make you think that the current psychedelic-pop revival has gone a bit too far. But Death by Chocolate, who top their polite lounge-exotica tunes with a thick frosting of hallucinogenic sound effects, are weird and charming enough for you to forgive their derivativeness. Compared with their American counterparts in the retro-psych Elephant 6 scene, Death by Chocolate are less concerned with writing perfect pop songs than with simply creating groovy mood pieces; many of the tracks here are built around hypnotic riffs or spoken words. "A, B & C" merges a Doors-like keyboard roll with a sweetly odd recitation of the alphabet ("G is for Gregorian, the ritual music named after Pope Gregory I"). If you ever thought Alice needed a better soundtrack for skipping around Wonderland's Technicolor garden, this is it. --Lisa Gidley

Sugarry goodness!:
This CD is just pure fun. I had heard the group on a compliation CD, and so gave the CD a chance, and I"m glad I did. While you might not listen to it all the time, it's like candy. It's fantastic every once and a while, and you find yourself craving it!! Some interesting songs on here, lots of catchy originals (sort of strange almost Belle & Sebastian-esque spoken word pop songs) then a wonderful cover version of "If you want to be free, be free" from the movie "Harold & Maude". Think Mary Poppins, WIlly Wonka, Wizard of Oz. Tasty pop!

Strangest Tea Party EVER:
I am not exagerating when I say that this CD is a polite hallucination: A late-aternoon tea party with the slanted light heavy on the wooden floor, stirring up the dust mites around the heads of Sally Field, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Angela Lansbury, Cat Stevens, a particularly large white Teddy Bear and a girl in a red raincoat (isn't she hot?) and violet umbrella. When you drink the piping tea, your lexicon is reduced to the letters of the alaphabet, letters that trip off your tongue to the halting beat of a music-box tune (where is that music box?). There is nothing more to say.....

Little happy music:
I don't think I can add much more than what the other reviewers already said. If the world has got you down and you need to be taken away to a little happy place, this is the CD for you. Guaranteed to make you smile.

Death By Chocolate=Extreme Aural Happiness:
What a bizarre notion of a cd! 17 songs- clocks in under 40 minutes- there's no time to get bored with this wonderful sweet concotion. Even better than a chocolate Krackel bar, and it won't rot your teeth if you eat too much. None of these songs are going to set the charts on fire, but that's the fun of the whole thing. Death By Chocolate's Angie Tillett speaks over the tracks- her vocals slightly remind me of a female Neil Tennant (of Pet Shop Boys). The music is a loungey/electronic-ish batch of creamy goodness. Put this on during a fabulous dinner party, and your friends are SURE to ask "What is this and where can I get it immediately?" Fave songs: "Daddy's Out Of Focus" (ain't that the truth), and "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" (from the movie "Harold And Maude".) I don't know why anyone hasn't covered that song before, it seems like such an obvious choice for a cover song. If you like your music a little left of center (and I'm not talking about the hot, hot song by Suzanne Vega!) you will adore Death By Chocolate. And if you don't like it, it's probably because you prefer those rotten Twizzlers (that get all stuck in your teeth) over chocolate!

Death By Chocolate. 60's kisch meets poetry.:
Death By Chocolate is almost a harsh name to represent this type of music, perhaps 'living through caramel' would be more appropriate. The sound basically intertwines the poetic musings of Angela Faye Tillett with kischy 60's grooves, a combination of Stereolab's melodic doo-wop harmonies, The Bees/The High Llamas' retro experimentalism, with a touch of Japanese cheekiness, eg, Pizzicato Five. Glossing over this is the tinted haze of 60's soundtracks, complete with cheezy keyboards, a boxed yet cheery colorful sound. I must admit, although interesting, I'm not exactly a fan of the spoken-word vignettes which dominate half the CD, yet the strength of the music itself is a creative force making it worth a listen. Think beat poetry meets Russ Meyer soundtracks meets Rainbow Quartz label bands.

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