Review - Djamel “Living High”
independent
album
A
few years ago, there was an artist in Sydney that would play anywhere… from the
dingy dive down South to the major support act at the local RSL. Based in
Sydney’s far north, Djamel was never afraid of travelling for the cause of his
music – he always had to! And here, with no help from a record or publishing
company, is the result of all that work – his debut album “Living High”.
Djamel always had a flair for
pop music, even back when he was doing it on his own. But here with his debut
album, recorded in Sydney and Melbourne, he has recruited people that are still
associated with some of the biggest names in the business… Warren (Killing Heidi) Jenkin, Garry (Moving
Pictures, 1927) Frost, Andy (Billy
Joel, Shania
Twain) Cichon
and Michael (Joe
Cocker) Hegerty.
So with such an
impressive pedigree, what is the end result? Nine commercially viable tracks
that, for all this lead-up and effort, start out favouring the instrumentation
and backing-vocals in the mix… getting over this, as the record seemed from
track 4, there are tracks that would work on Austereo, others on the Ms and still others on the Js… nothing like covering a market! And
the range of these tracks is just as vast, including Backstreet
Boys/5ive, U2, Jacquie Major, 1927 (where did that come from!?), Roxy
Music, and always, that
trademark Bryan Ferry/Lou
Reed voice (what Beatles influence?) with Bono touches. All this capped off with Djamel’s special treatment of John
Lennon’s Whatever Gets You Through The Night. Well done, team…
For a man who has been
performing music publicly for almost 11 years, this record is better than those
of us on the sideline would have expected. Which is a shame, really, because
that means #2 will be the very-difficult follow-up album! Who’s going to be on
that one?!