VA - Mo'Plen - Series Collection (1996-1998)

After the Easy Tempo label introduced lounge fans to the stylish and diverse world of Italian lounge music, other European record companies quickly moved in to follow their lead. A good example is Mo'Plen 1000, a compilation released by Irma La Douce. Subtitled "Easy turbo sound in a trippy deluxe!," Mo'Plen 1000 distinguishes itself from the Easy Tempo series by concentrating on instrumentals that play up the rock-oriented element of lounge. For example, "Chitarra Sit" by "Mario Molino E I Beats" is a psychedelic rock instrumental that is built on a fuzz-guitar melody. and Marc 4's "Wonder" is a throbbing cut built on an instrumental fuel between a heavily-reverbed guitar and some Deep Purple-style organ. Even jazzy tracks like "Peggy" and "Watermelon Man" throw in some surprisingly hard-edged electric guitar lines. Other cuts on the album pursue a more conventional path through lounge territory: Mirageman's "El Paso" plays off swinging horn arrangements against a bouncy pop beat, and "Stogliando La Margarita" by Giovanni Lamberti Orchestra builds its melody on a jazzy mixture of organ and brass. There are also a few cuts thrown in near the end with a straight easy listening sound: the best of these is "Jet Society" by the Cordara Orchestra, which highlights a mournful trumpet solo against an elegant backdrop of strings and piano. Although the individual cuts are frequently quite good, Mo'Plen 1000 doesn't fully succeed as a compilation because it never establishes a satisfactory sense of flow: the shifts between hard-rocking cuts and more mellow moments is abrupt, especially at the end. Despite this problem, the disc still offers up plenty of solid lounge cuts and is likely to please European lounge fanatics.