Thievery Corporation: The Mirror Conspiracy : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Thievery Corporation's 1996 debut, Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi, was a must-have for martini-drinking lounge lizards everywhere. Plundering a bazaar of cosmopolitan sounds, it established this swank, mod-suit-wearing D.C.-based duo as the Thomas Crowns of sampling. Four years on, DJs Rob Garza and Eric Hilton continue their global pillaging with the hypnotic Mirror Conspiracy -- think James Bond chilling with Lee Perry and Antonio Carlos Jobim in a spliffed-out twilight zone. Only this time out, sampling takes a back seat: The duo relies on live instrumentation, taking in Jamaican reggae's reverb and echo, Far Eastern psychedelia and sitars, and bossa-nova horns and exotica. Where Sounds was dub-heavy, Mirror Conspiracy is infatuated with vintage Brazilian rhythms; on "Samba Tranquille," rousing Latin percussion rumbles over slow beats and spacey electronic riffs. Thievery's maturing flirtation with sultry female vocalists Bebel Gilberto (stepdaughter of that original girl from Ipanema) and Lou Lou (a sexy France Gall-like French chanteuse) could well propel this pair out of the club underworld. On the surefire lounge classic "Lebanese Blond," Pam Bricker's stoned-sexy vocals suck you in faster than the narcotic highs she lovingly details. Mirror Conspiracy is the perfect soundtrack for those who aspire to the elegantly roguish, Vespa-riding, Italian-soft-porn-loving international set. (RS 848)

SARAH PRATT