Few bands seem as stranded in their time as the early 90's international club-pop combo, Deee-lite. Comprising of Ohio-born Lady Miss Kier, Russian Super DJ Dmitry(not from Paris) and Japanese DJ Towa Tei, they had already had a huge 1991 hit in Europe and North America with 'Groove Is In The Heart' whose bassline(provided by Funk Legend Bootsy Collins) few 90's clubbers could fail to recognise though, to be honest, I can't even remember the name of its parent album. 'Dewdrops In The Garden', however, is another story altogether. Containing the comparatively minor hit, 'Picnic In The Summertime', it is an album that is much more than the sum of its parts, which happened to include samples from then recent electronic geniuses like The Orb and Carl Craig alongside the more standard beats and riffs from Jimmy McGriff, The Clash, Marlena Shaw, The Detroit Emeralds and Earth, Wind & Fire.
To me, the record is one of the most hallucinogenic commercial pop albums of all time, with tracks like 'River Of Freedom' proving they had well more than twice the dancefloor chops of their previous efforts. To me, It stands beside De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Happy Mondays, Soul II Soul and even Massive Attack as a true aural representation of the early 90's music and fashion zeitgeist, albeit with slightly less sales.
Neat tricks, like in 'Somebody', where the 120bpm beat slows down to about 55 while subtly changing to a human beatbox rhythm, abound in an atmosphere of pure euphoric trippiness that revels in synths, samples and layered sounds akin to the aforementioned 'Orb' albums. At the same time, every song somehow evokes exotic clubs and the type of fashion boutiques it played endlessly in without being completely repugnant for that fact. Remixes from Johnny Vicious and Junior Sanchez were intended to beef up the originals, but I feel that they have aged rather badly whereas the originals have more than stood the test of time. If that isn't the mark of quality, I really don't know what else could be!
I discovered the album around the same time I was beginning to realise dance music was a lot more than the Happy Hardcore rubbish and elitist snobbery I'd been exposed to in my school days. Chemical Brothers remixes of Primal Scream and Manic St Preachers had opened my eyes, then records like Leftfield's debut lp had me searching for more and more machine music that didn't just sound like disco records played at 78rpm, distorted through a vocoder. While many new dance records were so cool they cost an arm and a leg everywhere, the charity shops around my part of town were full of records from the first wave of house whose previous owners had moved on to whatever else. This left tons of compilations and any combination Bomb The Bass, KLF, Phuture, Public Enemy, 808 State, New Order and Todd Terry singles and albums for me to find on my endless digging excursions. Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers' first lp's were just around the corner and everyone was into Orbital, Cypresshill and The Prodigy while I was still kind of in a gothpunk phase, trying desperately to prefer the darkness of Killing Joke, Joy Division, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Front 242 to the wave of sunshine soaked trippy house, indie and hip hop music I was hearing and finding all over the place.
Of course, once I had a girlfriend it was a bit harder to secretly enjoy my angst while listening to 'She's Lost Control' or ponder the eternal questions of unrequited love while 'Pale Blue Eyes' drifted from my stereo.
Together we went to see the Chemicals, had a blast at Megadog and made abortive plans to get to Glastonbury. Before long, almost all my music was about positive vibes and even the older music I liked took a similar spin, with Talking Heads, Blondie and The B-52's making more and more appearances on my turntable alongside Aphex Twin, Drum Club and Orbital. Many of my nights in the summer of 1995 were spent on microdots or Mick Jaggers while listening to 'Dewdrops' and consuming ever-bigger lumps of hash or increasingly exotic breeds of grass. we bounced around many a Glasgow landmark while at least one of the gang had it on the personal stereo. The Necropolis at dawn, The University courtyard at 2am, Byres Road as the pubs spill out: 'Dewdrops' represents a flashback of all these things and so much more. Even as I got deeper into dance music, 'Dewdrops In The Garden' remained a favourite, even asserting its relevance again in 1996 when DJ Misjah & Tim sampled 'Picnic In The Summertime' for their techno club smash, 'Access'. If any one album can fleetingly recreate the feelings I had in the first six months with that girlfriend, it would undoubtedly be 'Dewdrops In The Garden'. Songs like 'Party Happening People' with its thirties piano loop, flute, drippy synths and Amen Brother beat are still utterly fantastic to,my ear and 'Picnic In The Summertime' is still the song I think of when the city gets so hot you can feel the heat of the tarmac through your trainers. If you like tripping, house and techno music, jolly ranchers or being in love, you need to hear this record!
River Of Freedom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqezvGiT3NU
Party Happening People http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GESkGp9v2i0
Picnic In The Summertime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6HqRTiHJm8&ob=av2e
DMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcOspCxPEeo
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