»Bliss«. This has always been the core promise of dance music in the classical way, with the ego dissolving on the floor like an effervescent tablet or at least an MDMA crystal in a punch bowl. Disco, House and Techno – »Is it all over my face?«, »Promised Land« and the »Good Life«: music served as a launching pad, last stop transcendence. In the broader field of dance music, not much has been heard of such basic values in recent years, but now Roza Terenzi promises an update with her debut album: »Modern Bliss« is the title of this one, released on Sophia Sweetland’s label Planet Euphorique, which the Australian once inaugurated together with the operator under her pseudonym DJ Zozi. Two years ago this was just two years ago and a lot has happened since then. The sound on the nine tracks, however, is unmistakably in the traditions that have always been Terenzi’s main references: From electro comes funk, from jungle comes the atmosphere, from techno the high spirits and house adds a wistful note. These are roughly the ingredients that »Modern Bliss« throws together according to the principle of free combinatorics, always bringing them into vibration with each other with different weightings on track length. A strict concept is not recognizable through the good hour of music, but an idiosyncratic handwriting is. Even when Terenzi dives into esoteric rave fantasies with breathy vocal overdubs by Ivy Barkakati, as in the title track, it seems more like an equally sloppy and loving homage, but less like stencil music. Whether it’s gaudy electro interpretations like »Yo-Yo«, curious Jack Trax like »That Track (Rewired Mix)« or quasi-RAMZi hiccup beats with ethno flavor like »Spiral«: Terenzi has studied the old, bliss-promising formulas in detail and has thoroughly jumbled them up for her first album. It certainly sounds modern.
Modern Bliss
