Chris de Luca

The solo debut from the other half of Funkstörung proves who was likely the one arguing to remix Wu-Tang Clan; unlike the relatively smooth productions of Michael Fakesch, Chris de Luca's Deadly wiz da Disko is a tough hip-hop album run through the DSP shredder, closer in design and sound to Funkstörung's later work (especially Appetite for Disctruction). The album's full of inventive, playful productions constructed from sampling and stuttering a half-second of piano solo, the drum clatter of a dub version, and the raps of the co-billed Peabird. This is definitely de Luca's show, though, and he wields an iron fist, twisting all of the vocals, beats, and stray bits of '80s synth into left-field productions that end up sounding like Q-Bert scratching in a ring modulator. Fans of Prefuse 73 or Funkstörung will be smiling and nodding their heads within a few seconds, and though the sound isn't innovative quite like it was in 1996, it's obvious de Luca does it better than most anyone else. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide