Chris Price is an electronic music artist whose compositions garnered attention from the early to mid 1980′s in many adult films under the name D’Crescendo. At the time too young to view the movies that his music was in, he went largely unaware of the recognition that he was receiving from the films. It is said that people began going to the movies for the music alone. As Chris Price came of age, the adult entertainment industry began moving away from original music works and started copying the top 40 musical styles to engage a larger audience. It was at this time that he shed his D’Crescendo moniker and began doing work for the Weather Channel and through this forum eventually caught the attention of a prominent Christian movie director, for which he produced the music for a series of direct to video releases. From this exposure he influenced Gangsta Christian rapper Geto Deacon to make an album comprised almost completely of Chris Price samples. After revisiting the works of his D’Crescendo days, Chris Price has decided to make an original album in the flavor of his influences; which include Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Depeche Mode among others.
Chris Prices’ music is excellently programmed, he has a true understanding of vintage synth-pop that many are sure to enjoy. His mastery and appreciation of synth pop classics also comes with a classic case of the New Order problem. The music itself is wonderful, full of throbbing rhythms and catchy melodies but the lyrics sometimes leave something to be desired. Even fans of New Order have to concede that Bernard Sumner is not the world’s most brilliant lyricist. While sometimes this is endearing, other times it can be quite painful to endure (ala “Booty Magic”). Then again maybe it’s influence from being around the sub par acting and scripts of the adult film industry and the Christian film industry. That said, I applaud his willingness to experiment with so many different styles. Collectively there are still solid hits on his debut Post Pop Parade with the decidedly Herbie Hancock-ish “Work It”, the slow burn of “And She Was” (No not a Talking Heads Cover) that is a wonderful homage to New Order, complete with heavily chorused bass melody, and obvious lead single “Dim the Lights, Evangeline” that combines the catchiest lyrics on the entire album with sublime squiggly synths. If you’ve got a fever, and the only medication is more vocoder, Chris Price is prepared to fill the prescription.
