Various Artists - Naked Music Presents: Bare Essentials Vol. 2

This is my first introduction to the world of Naked Music, a cache of “sexy modern soul that grooves with an enticing bump.” (Can we get any more innuendo up in here?) Basically, its techno’d up soul singing and wah-pedals, but it’s cool, smooth, and very much like Isaac Hayes’ voice...just with a four-four beat behind it. This “sophisticated vibe” (these quotes are coming out of the little promo catalogue that comes with the CD) has those flute-tweets and head-nodding elements and has been lingering around since 1998. Basically, it’s the bongos-with-soul-voices that you’d hear at groove night at London’s Tiger Tiger while slugging back pints of Stella. You can dance to it, you could probably even bang to it, but I wouldn’t want to know if you did because it’d probably be this synchronized thing with Madonna-like costumes involved (not that there’s anything wrong with that, just do it to something more inventive, like the Stray Cats or something). It’s Jamiroquai with more danciness. To me, all of the tracks sounded the same (Blue Six’s “All I Need” and Lisa Shaw’s “Let is Ride” had the most sultry vocals), and it didn’t make me feel like doing anything remotely sexy. It did make me feel like wearing shiny clothes and dancing, but even that would take some controlled substance ingestion. If you like techno, and if you like Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works II but need something a little less interesting and a little more mojo-influencing, then you might like this. I personally found it kind of boring, yet very chill (ah, the label doth not lie). It’s atmospheric and sexy like clubs can be… I guess. [www.naked-music.com]