Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1974 - 1983
(Strut)
Some of these cuts sizzle so hot that The Typing Monkey had to go buy a popsicle. August Darnell, nee Thomas August Darnell Browder, was a bassist and songwriter from the Bronx who, after scoring a few genre-blurring disco hits as part of Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, went on to moderate fame -- at least in the U.K. -- as the titular Kid Creole with his back-up singers The Coconuts.
A long time DJ and hip-hop sampling favorite, Kid Creole may not get much more love with the Going Places collection, but damn if it isn't a great showcase for his composition and studio skills.
The opener "Sunshower" by Dr. Buzzard's OSB reaches the playful, African abstractions that Talking Heads often aimed at. And The Aural Exciters' track "Emilie (Night Rate)" pulls off that rare and intoxicating sensation of the tropics at night. The percussion's arranged so well it sounds like the beach, birds and insects making their usual noises -- with a subliminal dance rhythm.
Creole went on to write a few musicals, and that shows in songs such as "Goin' to a Showdown" and "He's Not Such a Bad Guy After All." Even his production work and co-writing of Machine's seminal (tee hee) gay anthem "There But for the Grace of God Go I" can't help but turn the proud declarations into something resembling a cast number from a big production.
There are dry spells. Tracks six ("There But for …") through nine (Coati Mundi's "Pharoah") probably did wonders with the booger-sugar crowd who hustled and strutted to the 12-inch singles of the time, but don't do much beyond that atmosphere.
And though Creole did excel at his blend of disco, Latin and big-band/jump-blues style, Going Places smartly includes a few left field songs to show off his diversity. Cristina's reading of "Is That All There Is?" towels away the carnival sweat from Peggy Lee's defining rendition and replaces it with a seen-it-all attitude of a post-Studio 54 devotee still snorting, drinking and dancing even though her enthusiasm tamped out several cigarettes ago.
Better still is Kid Creole & The Coconuts' "Off the Coast of Me" that closes the disc. It's a lot of Van Dyke Parks, and a little bit Leon Redbone and five kinds of weird fun. If he didn't record it while lying in a hammock, we should be quite disappointed.
Reference materials: August Darnell dabbled in too many styles to list here, but for this collection, anyone unafraid of the more theatrical side of Blondie, Josie Cotton and Rachel Sweet and who also has a fondness for the kind of disco that didn't make it on to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack will have plenty to chew on.
