LOS ANGELES (Hip-O/UMe Records) - From trip-hop to Britpop, downbeat to Latin metal, CSI: MIAMI THE SOUNDTRACK (Hip-O/UMe), released June 29, 2004, is as edgy and evocative as the TV series from which it has been spawned. Not surprisingly then, the CBS show won both the 2003 People's Choice Award for Favorite Television New Dramatic Series and a 2003 BMI TV
Music Award.
With the series' hit second season just concluded, CSI: MIAMI THE SOUNDTRACK brings together both the well-known and the little-known for a rare TV soundtrack album that dares to raise up the underground.
Along with one immortal rock artist, The Who - whose "Won't Get Fooled Again" is the series theme song opening each episode - the album's most familiar artists are Oasis and Massive Attack. One of the U.K.'s most popular bands of the '90s, Manchester's Oasis resurrected British guitar pop and mixed it with punk attitude (the epic "The Masterplan" appeared on the 1998 B-side collection MASTERPLAN).
Massive Attack pioneered trip-hop, influencing a generation of dance music artists ("Everywhen" was heard on its 2003 album 100TH WINDOW). Perhaps some Americans also have a notion of Ian Brown, who fronted the revered U.K. band the
Stone Roses and is heard with "Forever And A Day" from his 2001 MUSIC OF THE SPHERES solo disc.
But the rest of CSI: MIAMI THE SOUNDTRACK is pure revelation. Lamb, one of electronica's most innovative groups, is a downtempo vocals-oriented drum'n'bass duo from Manchester ("Gabriel" is a radio edit of the track on 2001's WHAT SOUND).
Baxter, from Sweden, also combines pop song structures with drum'n'bass, as on "Gonna Make It There" from their 2002 ABOUT THIS album.
Again from Manchester is epic pop trio Doves, whose cheery 2002 album LAST BROADCAST featured "Satellites."
Martina Topley Bird is the long-time Tricky diva who made her solo debut on 2003's chill-out QUIXOTIC, which included "Need One."
FC Kahuna elevated the Big Beat in the London club scene and scored with 2002's MACHINE SAYS YES and its chill-out hit "Hayling."
Bent, much respected in England but unknown beyond dance circles elsewhere, traffics in mid-tempo beats and chilled atmospheres on their 2000 PROGRAMMED TO LOVE debut, which includes "Invisible Pedestrian."
Lemon Jelly's downtempo for the new acid generation was heard on 2000's LEMONJELLY .KY with "A Tune For Jack."
Nitin Sawhney fuses electronica with Indian culture throughout his 2003 album HUMAN, including "Say Hello."
In fact, there are only two American artists on CSI: MIAMI THE SOUNDTRACK: New Jersey-based Latin metal sextet Ill Nino, whose "I Am Loco" graced their 2001 debut REVOLUTION REVOLUCION, and Citizen Cope, whose hypnotic street music, exemplified by "Let The Drummer Kick It," defined its self-titled 2002 album.
