CD Reviews

Cedric Gervais

Miami | Yoshitoshi

By MICHAEL FREEDBERG | June 12, 2007

3.0 Stars

This set by influential French-born, Miami-based DJ Gervais lives up to its title, showcasing the soft sounds, lilting rhythms, and bright textures that distinguish Miami house from the bluesier and funkier styles prevalent in other major house cities. The 12 tracks include two of Gervais’s own, both of them well-known hits: Alcatraz’s “Give Me Luv,” an all-time (1995) Ibiza favorite, and Holmes Ives and Avalon Frost’s “8 Letters.” There are also two Eddie Amador songs, the tipsy-voiced “6 AM” and the anthemic “House Music,” which warns that “not everybody understands house music.” Some understanding of the soul, body, and spiritual attributes that Amador is asking dancers to listen for might be gleaned from the lesser-known tracks in Gervais’s set, especially the later ones, in which the rhythm gets on down and feels almost dirty: Julie Dennis’s blissed-out “Sugar (Sweet Thing),” Danny Rampling’s electro-spiritual “Strobe Light,” DJ Remy and Roland Klinkenberg’s even more bountiful “Detroit Track,” and Chab’s smudgy techno beats in “The Dub Sessions,” which closes out the CD on a fierce, even funky stride.

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