TimeOut London
Slow Train
Illegal
Cargo
Date: July
2003
Reviewer: Sharon
O'Conell
mmmmmm.
Mood music. Slow Train is a collaboration between Morten Varano - of
excellent but criminally undersung (in this country) Italo/ Danish dance
duo Puddu Varano - and fine vocalist/ scat poet Lady Z who performs
regularly on London soul-jazz club scene under the name Z Star. She´s
worked with Asian Dub Foundation, Natacha Atlas, Terry Callier and sang
on Puddu Varano´s album of last year "Time To Grow",
but Slow Traincasts Lady Z (as in 'zee') in a different light again.
Her cool and earthy, molten chocolate tones vaguely recall both Eartha
Kitt and funkier Sherley Bassey and are perfectly suited to this sophisticated
but soulful blending of deep house, vintage funk andjazz-toned breaks.
Illegal Cargo is chilled and dead classy, there´s no denying it
but with none of the blandness or glassy-eyed cool that might suggest.
It´s also admirably diverse: the epynomous bookend tracksrecall
Patti Smith reciting poetry over a Lalo Schifrin film score; 'Twisted
Cupid' comes on like Sade with cojones , prowling around rainstreaked
streets with Varano´s sweet keys and Lady Z's guitar for company;
'Naturally' finds the chanteuse in a jazz cellar with her Dexter Gordon
records and say Lazy Dog's Ben Watt; and 'Trail Of Dawn' delivers ragga
tones with a distinctive tribal pulse and subtle, bass bin rumble. Much
more than a foil for Lady Z's vocals, 'Illegal Cargo' reveals Slow Train
as a sleek, turbo-charged, thoroughly contemporary vehicle.