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August 18 - 25, 2000

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**1/2 Mephisto Odyssey

THE DEEP RED CONNECTION

(Warner Bros.)

The toast of San Francisco's dance underground, Mephisto Odyssey are at their best when they stick to what they know -- dance music. "Some Kinda Freak," "Sexy Dancer," and "Red Drums" are all elegant, refined boogie tracks, suggesting that music on the techno-house cusp can be forever expanded without much more than a campy sample or a risky refrain.

Unfortunately, Mephisto Odyssey enlisted the help of so many guests for their major-label debut that the music wound up losing its identity along the way (indeed, none of the four Mephistos is mentioned by name in any of the press material). These guests are parasites, bending everything to their own styles -- we get anonymous hip-hop from Oakland rapper Bigg Sauce, lethargic atmospheric pop from Gus Gus's Hafdis Huld, ragga jump-up getdown from MC Jamalski, Korny techno-thrash from Wayne Static of Static X, dreamy vagueness from Tarnation's Paula Frazer. Most of these detours sound decent, but they give the impression that straight-up dance music isn't good enough on its own.

-- Kevin John
[Music Footer]

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