Chilly Gonzales – Ivory Tower

Spectacle is something Chilly Gonzales doesn’t shy away from – an acclaimed virtuoso pianist, ‘super producer’, soft-pop crooner and super villain MC – he’s a peerless multifaceted “entertainist.” Breaking records on his way (Gonzales holds the title for longest solo-artist performance, clocking in at a mind-boggling 27 hours) he never sounds like he did the same thing twice. So what move next? Writing and starring in his first feature-film, of course, an existentialist sports comedy about chess and success, which this album accompanies.

Much like the great game itself, Ivory Tower is complex and brilliant. Knight Moves and Never Stop are deserved of dancefloors the world over. You Can Dance is the kind of funk-pop that Prince wishes he could still muster, and on I Am Europe outlandish humour prevails with declarations like, “I am gay pastry and racist cappuccino.” On centre-piece, The Grudge, our ‘pranksta’ pleads for enemies, but if Gonzales is looking for a nemesis on these pages we’re sorry to disappoint. This is superior melodic mastery from the ‘piano-playing Larry David’. [Alan Souter]