- Let the debate commence: Why after six years does Luciano resurrect the Lucien-N-Luciano moniker? The answer on Cuidad De Luz seems to be overt melody. (Forget the Luciano full-length for a moment. He was always going to release his new album under that name. Bookers would get confused otherwise.) Luciano's 12-inch efforts have always been thicketed minimal tunes that were heads-down and dance floor-focused. Lucien-N-Luciano is a celebration, the place where he can indulge the sort of ebullience that finds its way into his DJ sets.
And that's exactly what we get with "Somewhere We Got" and "House Tool's House," tracks brimming over with the sort of breezy riffs and vocals that will no doubt go down famously at his Pacha residency this summer in Ibiza. The fascinating thing, as always with Luciano, is in how ridiculously quirky it nonetheless sounds. Despite sounding like the sort of Balearic cooldown that could soundtrack the dreamy end-of-night portion of a set, the 12-minute "Melodrama" is awash in little bits of digital fuzz and what sounds like a bassline played live in the studio by a bored Jaco Pastorius. "Behind My Soul," meanwhile, inexplicably has train bells for more than seven of its nearly 16 minutes, as though you'd be interested in hearing how Luciano can make them ring in time with a tropical-inflected beat. He's a weird one, Lucien-N-Luciano. But it's nice to have him back.
Tracklist A Somewhere We Got
B House Tool's House
C Behind My Soul
D Melodrama