Riva Starr: If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade
Riva Starr: If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade
Friday, 22, Jan 2010 09:39
Made To Play, out January 25th.
What's it all about?
This is the debut album from much hyped Italian house producer, Stefano Miele, AKA Riva Starr. After a string of attention-grabbing releases and remixes for the likes of Fatboy Slim and the Gossip, 2010 is poised to be the year Riva Starr really makes his name.
As an example...
"Yesterday I was drunk, with some chicks in the club/I don't remember who came back with me/And tonight I will drink, with some chicks in the club, I'm not sure I want to, ooh la la la."
So is it any good?
Riva Starr is seriously hot property right now, snapped up by Jesse Rose's Made to Play label - after previous releases on Claude VonStroke's Dirty Bird imprint and Fatboy Slim's Southern Fried - he has a six-month waiting list for club appearances and was the talk of the blogosphere last year.
The amusingly-titled If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade is based around of his chunky, Balkan/Mezcla house sound, and is full of the macho Italian swagger you would expect from someone on such a sharp career trajectory; typified by the Noze co-produced lead single I Was Drunk (lyrics above).
Maybe it has something to do with his ten-year career producing under different guises, or his talent for remixing other people's work, but the one thing that becomes very clear listening to this album is that he's not very original. The album is littered with fairly explicit references to his influences: from becoming the ninth producer to pillage the classic horn sample on Lafayette Afro Rock Band's Darkest Night in his homage to 80s electro, Black Mama, to the verbatim use of Ramiez's Hablando riff on Caballeros, or the re-interpretation of Mr Fingers Chicago house masterpiece, Can You Feel It, for Tribute. The trouble is, like any good parody, he clearly has a deep devotion to the subject matter, and as a result many of the rip-offs sound better than the originals.
Apparently he calls this mimicking style 'snatch' - also the name of his forthcoming record label - with the album supposed to represent the variety of his musical taste and DJ sets. So whilst he may be something of a musical impersonator, he has managed to successfully combine the best elements of catchy commercial dance with the production detail and depth of more respected underground producers. And in doing so he has created a varied collection of club tools that puts him right up amongst the best of his peers.
8/10
Peter Walker