Listen to Marcel all the time
author: Kim Strauss
I love this cd...the songs are different, doesn't sound like cookie cutter...
EXCELLENT!!
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u GOTTA get this CD NOW!!!
author: Royce White
Marcel is truly talented...his music is original & fresh. His ballads are especially nice...listen to "Picture Show" and you'll hear what I mean...Look for Marcel to top the charts soon...
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Spice Shows Promise
author: N.Y. Rocks
As "Come Over F/Tori Fixx," the first cut on the disc comes out of the speakers, the Prince influence hangs in the air like too much cologne. Yet, unlike that analogy, there's nothing wrong with too much of a good thing. And as the title suggests, this is an alternative hip-hop experience, and not your run-of-the-mill stuff. There's a nice groove to many of the songs, more R&B and soul than hip-hop, or at least outweighing the latter. Marcel takes a more minimalist approach than some of his hip-hop contemporaries, and what is played is well thought out and well placed. A number like "The Morning Song" is more of an acoustic ballad, and again, the debt owed to Prince is quite large. But it's a lovely song nonetheless. Spice shows promise.
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Marcel Straddles R&B and Hip-Hop Like Mary J. Blige Does......
author: Africana.com
MeShell Ndegéocello once said there was no such thing as alternative hip hop music. Apparently, she had never heard of Marcel, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from California, who has just released his second offering, Spice: the Alternative Hip Hop Experience on Bombay Recording Company. The album's sound straddles R&B and hip hop; better put, Marcel uses hip hop beats much in the way Mary J. Blige does to add flavor and "spice" to R&B compositions. Produced, arranged, composed and performed entirely by Marcel, much of Spice is driven by electronic beats and cool synthesizers. Occasionally, live instruments enter the scene, as on the touching "The Morning Song", with its airy acoustic guitar and soft piano. Other ear-friendly cuts include "Where Do I Go [Bump Mix]", and "Soul Searching", which sounds like Ndegéocello's "Outside Your Door," from Plantation Lullabies. Marcel can write and sing. Marcel's talents are there, but need to be nurtured so that what he brings to the table doesn't automatically conjure up another one-named wonder and overt influence: Prince.
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