Azaxx ‎– The Exotic Delight Bay

Azaxx lives up to the title of his debut, THE EXOTIC DELIGHT BAY, with some lush tropical samples and juicy grooves. The bounce on "Wild Strawberry Jelly," for example, is a sure toe-tapper. Where Azaxx starts to fall flat, however, is that much of the album doesn't offer much in terms of song; instead, it seems like an old skool DJ breaks record, chocked full of beats to stitch in-between tracks. "Fiesta Tropica," for instance, relies on the same horn loop throughout and despite the layers of clarinet and vocal shouts, it doesn't move forward much (though there is that great horn break). Azaxx shows more musicianship on "Smoothly Morning," which relies less on the samples and more on his own slinky songcraft. That's not to say that the samples aren't effective -- "Carioca Paradise" is clattering and joyously gritty -- but that it gets dull after a while. Indeed, "Happy Mango" sounds too much like "Carioca Paradise" for its own good. But when you have tracks like the gloriously sleazy "Beach Mambo," it all evens out.