Track Listing

1. No Problem
2. Diamonds & Comforts
3. Afrolicious
4. Driving
5. Milano Calibro 9
6. Destination Moon
7. Girotondo Dei Grandi
8. Within
9. Forever's Not
10. Experiments in Ambient Soul
11. Thin Ice
12. World She Made
13. U

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67760 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Album Description
13-track 2005 album released on Schema.

Album Details
The Dining Rooms Are Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti. Their Fourth Full Length Album is an Outgrowth from the Work Done to Produce their Live Shows (Courtesy of Good Friend Maria Arena) to Create a Multimedia Intensive Live Experience. Special Attention for this Collection of Inspired, Spiritual Tracks Comes from Heightening the Whole of the Live Show Experience and by Paying Particular Attention to Carefully Guided Songwriting. Thus, It's a Journey Into Funk and Jazz featuring Appearances from Don Freeman, Amraah 8, Sean Martin, Marta Collica and Hugo Race.

Customer Reviews

Solid
The Dining Rooms are Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare malfatti. They're based out of Italy on the Schema label but have also released work on Edizioni Ishtar's "Milano" label as well. So they're label mates with the likes of Gerardo Frisina, Soulstance, Vuca, Rosalia De Souza, Marco Bianchi/Paolo Fedreghini, The Five Corners Quintet and of course, Nicola Conte. They've also been around and contributed to quite a few projects, from various Schema jazz sets and releases to Noorda and then to other remixes.

This release didn't grab me. Granted the concept is for experimentation with more of a soul vibe to it. And to be honest, that concept of soul and funk seemed to be the theme for 2005 in general. The cd starts out with "No Problem", one of the stronger tuens on the album - and it's the one with the vocals before going into "Diamonds & Comforts", a cut that just didn't grab me. Down the line on this you've got "Destination Moon", one of the IMO stronger tunes on the album with good keywork/horns and a nice vibe to it. "Within" is a track that will remind you of a Jazzanova/Ursula Rucker collaboration - not bad, but pretty par for the course on the album. But "Forever's Not" picked it up - easily one of my favorite cuts on the album. "Thin Ice" was a good moody track too. But for a good amount of the cuts, the ambiance felt more forced. Some songs, like "The World She Made" in particular, was taken apart by too many... maybe not lyrics, but just words... the style that dominated so many of the songs - just spoken words.

I'm probably a bit jaded since I was such a fan of "Subterranean Modern" and I absolutely loved "Numero Deux", so I can understand what the first reviewer was saying and the last - if you loved that album (Numero Deux), you may be totally shocked with this one. There was something about their second album that was much bolder, much more raw yet that much more eye-opening... like "Chorus of Flames" or how about "Invocation" & "Catania City Blues" - it actually did capture an ambience to it, albeit a dark one. But this one, and their last one, "Tre", don't really measure up to that one IMO. The sound has evolved and they're going into different realms of sound, which is probably a good thing. This was far from being a bad album, it's just that I've had it for quite a while and just couldn't get into it. But... I did like Versioni Particolari AND there will be a second Versioni Particolari out late this winter/spring.

Ultimately worth having in your collection
There is certainly some good music on this album, but the word
"Experiments" in the title should send up a flag. Ultimately, I enjoyed the music on this cd, unfortunately it was often upstaged by what I found to be excessive (and sometimes annoying) lyrics. Still, there are at least a few songs on this disc worth having in your collection, particularly if you are a TDR fan.

Awesome Dining Rooms experience.
This is a new and smooth sound not found in the states. It is very classy and original sounding. No techno, no computer looped crap. A very soothing beat to relax to. The French and Italian lyrics bring it all together. It is an awesome addition to any chill out house, lounge, or jazz coinsure/collector.