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3 Oct 2002

dirty vegas: dirty vegas

The British trio became the world's first band to debut as part of a high profile car ad campaign after its first single, Days Go By, was licensed before their debut self-titled album, Dirty Vegas, was even released. Ikram Khasim reviews the album after it made its debut in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart.

Daft Punk, Modjo, and a little bit of Everything But The Girl (without the girl). That should vaguely describe the sound of the all-male British trio Steve Smith, Ben Harris, and Paul Harris... better known as Dirty Vegas.

Although it's not exactly the kind of music you would hear at gay clubs still worshipping Geri Halliwell's repulsive version of It's Raining Men, don't be surprised if you hear one or two tracks from their self-titled debut playing there.

What's interesting is the fact that Dirty Vegas weren't a band before last year and didn't even have a name the night before they signed up with the record company. Their success today is mostly attributed to their first song, Days Go By, which was first played in a high-profile Mitsubishi car commercial in the US. "We'd been thrown together by the success of one song. We had to find out if we could actually work together."

Apparently they did, although at times the whole album feels like it's set on repeat--every new track sounds like the one before it. The fact that most tracks were fused together with the next added to the feeling that Dirty Vegas had either run out of ideas, were high on pot, or just simply had a sick fascination with creating a sense of dj vu. However, the same could be said about certain nightclubs that open until lunch with their zombie-like inhabitants not caring less about the music as long as it keeps them in momentum.

Steve Smith, who provides the distorted vocals in the album, could possibly just ditch dance and start a solo career singing folk songs if he knew what's good for him. The acoustic version of Days Go By proves that Smith's clear voice was ironically butchered by his own music. By the way, the track is similar to what Modjo did for the acoustic version of Lady (Hear Me Tonight). If this trend keeps up, we'd probably be hearing Kylie's "la-la-la" song over guitars and bongos very soon!

The trio describes their debut as "music made from the heart." "It's about us, our emotionseverything there is something that happened to one of us or to someone near and dear to us."

Although not groundbreaking in sound, tracks like I Should Know, Ghosts, All Or Nothing and Alive will play in your head as you go through your day while Throwing Shapes and The Brazilian make perfect companions as you're heading out for some serious clubbing.

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