Rinocerose: Installation Sonore : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Rinocerose are made up of two French psychologists named Jean-Philippe Freu and Patrice Carrie (a.k.a. Patou); on their U.S. debut, they draw from a palette of house grooves and percolating guitars to create dance music that's as earthy as it is esoteric. Installation Sonore avoids the monotony that often plagues house albums by including a five-piece backup band armed with funky flutes and toddling bass lines; psychedelic riffs writhe like rhythmic Moebius strips against the percussion of programmer Johnny Palumbo. From the trippy atmospherics of "La Guitaristic House Organisation" to the weird lounge core of "Mes Vacances ê Rio," the duo recombines routine dance devices into a mix that defies classification. Like the rhino painting by a mental patient that lent Rinocerose their name, Installation Sonore is a lesson in exuberant schizophrenia, full of hallucinatory bravado. (RS 841)

NEVA CHONIN