GIL MANTERA’S PARTY DREAM – Blood Songs

I’m more accustomed to hearing quality blues music coming from an album on Fat Possum Records, and Bloodsongs ain’t the blues no matter how you skin it. Put together by Gil Mantera and Ultimate Donny, this release mixes electronica beats with bass, vocals, and guitar to create music that you would expect to hear in a dance club full of purple lights and a coked-out clientele. Some of the blips and loops are interesting. I don’t really care for Gil’s singing. In fact, I’d prefer the music a lot more if he weren’t singing at all. Gil’s voice has that desperate ‘80s, fist-clenching ballad sound that makes me just want to shake him silly. Get over it, man! She isn’t worth it.

(Fat Possum Records, PO Box 1923, Oxford, MS 38655)