Divine Operating System

Leisure Groove pt. 2: The Disco Era
by: bill aicher

With their debut self-titled album, Supreme Beings of Leisure helped usher in a new variety of electro-lounge. Part Portishead and part lounge act, Geri Soriano-Lightwood and Ramin Sakurai were one of the sexiest newcomers to the electronic soundscape, taking the tired dance genre to new heights and depths with their extremely sensual tracks.

Divine Operating System starts out seeming to be an extension on their self-titled release, but not far in you'll notice a deeper disco influence at work. Songs like "Give Up" and "Divine" take the basic tenets of disco and give them the Supreme Beings of Leisure once-over. What we end up with is something a bit more akin to James Bond / spy thriller sexcapades - and on the whole it's extremely effective. (If Austin Powers 3 had been anywhere near a decent movie, Goldmember would have been flexing his skates to these tunes.)

Still, most other disco-influenced records, Divine Operating System slowly begins to feel repetitive. If you're not paying close attention it's easy to mistake one track for another. Luckily for Supreme Beings of Leisure they're all extremely well constructed, or this repitiveness might have become overbearing.

Perhaps the best part of the album, however, is the addition of a second disc of 5.1 audio mixes of four tracks (Give Up, Ghetto, Catch Me, and Touch Me) complete with "leisure visuals," a "leisure bio" and "leisure photos." These 5.1 mixes sound extraordinarily good, and given SBL's musical style turn out nicely. The visuals give the music a bit more feeling as well - the perfectly tripped out scenery you'd expect.

I quote Brody from the immortal film Mallrats: "This is like something straight out of Octopussy." 09-Sep-2002 9:40 PM