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LOUIE AUSTEN - Iguana

'Lounge wizard Louie Austen resembles nothing less than your devilishly dashing bachelor uncle. His English is straight out of a Sinatra comedy and his conversation is littered with `50s showbiz expressions.' DAZED & CONFUSED

Having just released his Best Of compilation Hear My Song, Leisure suit pleasure salamander Louie already returns with a new studio album on Klein Records. Iguana sounds as if could mash up the anniversary party of the local gardening club of Acapulco - an album for steamy summer nights produced by DJ Phonique, Jeff Melnyk, DJ Friction and Stefan Jungmair of Mum/Mummer.

Louie Austen has been around for longer than you may realise. Now almost 60, Louie has leaped from thriving as an enigmatic night club crooner to one of the most exhilarating performers dance music currently has to offer. Three albums and one Best Of down the line, one thing the Viennese Electro-crooner still doesnt go for is doing things by half: Art must be a matter of life and death otherwise its not art is Louie´s sincere conviction. Whatever he does is done with his fullest commitment and often regardless of the consequences. Admittedly, this reckless attitude has given him some serious troubles time and again. And yet it also made him what he is today: a man who finds himself an upcoming and sought-after artist whose career hasnt yet reached its climax.

The new album Iguana is a balancing act, just like everything else in Louie´s life. Louie sees himself as the iguana of the petting zoo whom people might be scared of at first sight but fascinated at the same time and won´t forget. Not the fluffy bunny everybody loves and wants to caress but the bizarre and extraordinary maverick in the terrarium you would like to touch but he might bite. Ugly in clichés of beauty yet interesting for all this beauty and sleekness in pop bizness are oh so dull. The musical spectrum on Iguana is very wide; it´s a truly versatile and multi-faceted album from a multi-faceted Electro-tainer. There is everything from dance or disco tracks to really dark stuff. It might even be his most diverse longplayer ever with four producers in the credits.

His music allows Austen a transformation from a pure entertainer, who assumes the roles of those he pays tribute to, into an artist in his own right, no less. Part of Louie Austens appeal lies in the fact that he has not entirely discarded the entertainer in this metamorphosis. He brought many things along for the ride, and his know-how of how to entertain with verve and how to put on a great show, his charm and charisma, and the style of the urbane entertainer he had cultivated so long serve him equally well in the electronic underground. He is a mediator who mixes various genres, some of which were previously regarded as incompatible. For several years now he has managed to resolve alleged contradictions and break down prejudices jazz and dance beats, advanced age and youth culture, smart style and underground. In a way I stand for a kind of reconciliation, he describes his unique position, a bridge between old and new or between young and old.

    TRACK LISTING
  01 Passion for Life
  02 Disco Dancer
  03 Red Light
  04 Rain
  05 Boom Boom
  06 If You Let me Love You
  07 In My Heart
  08 Glamour Girl
  09 Only You
  10 Can't Stop
  11 I Ain't Much

LOUIE AUSTEN - Iguana is available through Klein Records, and distributed by Creative Vibes

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