I think that the David Crowder Band is one of the most innovative worship bands working in Christian music today. Sure, there are lots of Christian bands working under the radar who probably have far more diverse and groundbreaking musical styles, and more poetic lyrics. But I'm not talking so much about pushing the boundaries of art as I am about redefining what's considered "okay" without the bounds of praise & worship music - that is, music which is create specifically for people to sing along to in praise to God, and even for worship leaders to pick up and learn to play for their own congregations. The DCB's songwriting has generally fallen under this umbrella, but since they've made their music about more than just taking some nice flowery words, matching them to a comfortable tune, and dressing them up in the finest AC-radio-friendly production that Nashville can buy. These guys have been about breaking the rules in ways that still allow them to be accessible to a rule-following music industry. Everything, from the quirky instrumentation on several of their songs (including synthesizers and turntables, and also a violin, in addition to the prominent acoustic guitars and more standard "rock" setting), to the sometimes imaginative lyrics that get us to think about what our relationship with God is like instead of just mouthing words absent-mindedly, to even their hairdos and quirky senses of humor, signals a band who isn't being weird just for the sake of being weird, but who does want to use the creativity that they've been given to offer their own expression of worship.

It took me a while to warm up to the DCB's style - their first major-label album, Can You Hear Us?, got caught in the mid-tempo doldrums and failed to impress me. It was their sophomore effort, Illuminate, that slowly hooked me. I was intrigued by the combination of electric and organic that made it difficult to classify them as strictly a "rock" band. Their sound could range from Newsboys-inspired to something more Dave Matthews-esque, and then you'd get a cover of an old hymn or something. This approach appealed to the college age crowd, and that's where my heart has been ever since I started college (I'm long since finished with it), so this worked out perfectly for me in the long run. Illuminate was probably the best worship album to come out of CCM-land in 2003, and I've been eagerly awaiting the band's follow-up since then. Having taken the time to incorporate several of the album's songs into my own small group worship times, I slowly came to appreciate even some of their more simplistic aspects. It seemed like the quirky instrumentation could be stripped away, and if we only had Crowder's voice and guitar, the songs would still stand out as something robust and meaningful.

Now here's the interesting thing. Modern worship tends to be very guitar-based. I suppose you'll have your syrupy keyboard-driven types geared at audiences who are too easily offended by innovative music, and then of course, Gospel music has always been a very direct form of worship that generally isn't guitar based. But most of the stuff aimed at the younger crowd tends to have a rock base, or maybe a folk base. What would happen if a band took some of their well-known songs and removed that focus, placing the songs in an entirely different genre?

Well, since they apparently had some free time, and since they have a DJ in the band and all, the DCB decided to make an attempt to do this. Drawing on the more electronic side of their influences, the band has offered us Sunsets & Sushi: Experiments in Spectral Deconstruction, an 8-track EP featuring chilled-out, but still rather idiosyncratic versions of some of the best loved songs on Illuminate. Now, some might wonder why we need chilled-out takes on these songs, but given that ambient electronica ain't exactly a huge cash cow in Christian music, we can safely assume this is not a sell-out attempt on the band's part. It's just a case of re-imagining their labor of love. Yeah, it takes some getting used to. At times, it's kind of like driving through a town you've been familiar with all you life, except that it's night time, the whole place is blanketed in snow, and you're doped up on Nyquil. It's the same place, but... different. And not in a bad way, even if a few of these mixes do seem to circumvent the original intent of the original song.

Long story short - if you're looking for club-ready techno mixes with plenty of bumpin' bass so that you can get yo' groove on, you've come to the wrong place. If you're looking for something to relax to after you've gotten home from the rave, when you're reading your Bible and preparing to go to sleep at about 7 in the morning, this might do the trick. Or if you're like me and you just get a kick out of songs you love playing dress-up in different genre costumes. Occasionally an arrangement will suck the life out of a song with an awkward chord structure, or the beats will be a bit too light to allow the song to have any true momentum. But give it some time, and Sunsets & Sushi will prove to be an intriguing little companion to the album it was spawned from.

No One Like You (Thanksgiving Mix)
A round of warm, bubbly synths draws us into the EP, and the light, quick tapping of drums imitates the upbeat, bouncy flavor of the original song, which makes for a good opener since it's one that's been showing up early in the DCB's live concerts. There's enough bass to the beat to keep the song anchored, but it's really more based in that vintage, hand-clapping-type sound that you might expect from an old electronic keyboard. Unfortunately, an early strike against this song (and a common problem with a lot of electronic remixes) is the fragmented, drawn-out nature of the verses, where only parts of some of David's lines show up, and echo for much longer than the line would last in the original version. It kind of kills the sing-along-ability of the song, in my opinion. But the song redeems itself with its upbeat, perky nature, throwing in just enough real guitar in the background to allow the band to not completely disappear into their computers. The fast beats are kind of a fun contrast to the light background of intentionally fake strings, which kind of accompany the beat during a slow fade after the point where the original song would have needed with its final drum fill.

O Praise Him (All This for a King) (Oceanic Mix)
The big anthem of Illuminate was probably the most likely candidate for a remix, since it had a pretty electronic intro to begin with, and about the right tempo for a four-on-the-floor dance beat to fit with. Crowder seems to prefer the minimal beats to the full-on heavy ones, though, so this song remains pretty light despite the array of sounds running through it. After the sputtering, spacey intro that replaces the little "music box" thingie we were used to in the original, David proceeds by changing up the chords backing up the verses and chorus, even though his recorded vocals don't appear to be any different. I both love and hate it when bands do this - on the one hand, it shows a decent knowledge of music theory, and how to make the same vocal line fit a different chord progressions, but on the other hand, it kind of throws off a person's perception of the melody, and where the powerful spots are that you would just want to belt out at the top of your lungs. Maybe that only makes sense to people like me who actually pay attention, but anyway, the net effect is that the chorus doesn't feel like a chorus. I also don't get the feeling of this being a song that a bunch of different people could join in and sing along with, due to how insular David seems to be amid all of the electronics. There's also an odd clanging bell which severely mars the melodic nature of the last verse. On the upside, there is sort of a neat, filtered operatic vocal part lurking underneath which sort of reminds me of both "The Story of Our Lives" by The Echoing Green and "Exit Music (for a Film)" by Radiohead, and those are honestly two artists I never thought I'd be comparing the DCB to.

Open Skies (Dirty Beats Mix)
Now this one, I love. "Open Skies" was kind of the feel-good party song of Illuminate, so I think it's brilliant to match it up with old-school analog synths and a streetwise beat that contains a little more low-end for a change. I don't know if I'd quite call it "urban", but it has a slight echo of such a quality. And then you've got strains of Mike Hogan's violin weaving through it, which is cool because I don't remember there being a violin in the original (which was one of my few criticisms of Illuminate - not enough of that beautiful fiddle!) Ironically, this is one point where switching a song into more of a minor key mode appears to work. It's still very easy to follow along if you know the original. Crowder's voice still sounds like it's not quite suited for the effects gurgling behind him (and it's especially strange when his vocals get chopped up and electronically manipulated in a few places), but it's not that big of a deal. It's a darker-hued take on what still comes across as a very celebratory song.

Revolutionary Love (Neo-Mechanical Mix)
The synths sound busier on this one, like a futuristic machine getting revved up. Crowder's voice is highly processed at the beginning, again echoing snippets of each line from the verses. This mix has a very robotic, almost 80's kind of feel - you know, the way it was when everyone was fascinated with making their songs sound like spiffy sci-fi soundtracks and all that. The quickly ticking beat almost reminds me of a mechanical insect or something - overall, I kind of like the ear candy that all of the sounds provide, especially the slightly glitch, syncopated beat that takes over the second verse. Unfortunately, the song really fails to build in its energy level the way the original did, which makes it fall flat once you're about halfway through and you've heard most of the interesting stuff that it has to offer. While the original version was highly electronic as well, it felt like it was making a triumphant declaration, whereas this version just appears to be twiddling around until it comes sputtering to a halt.

How Great (Direct from Satellite City)
This remix is probably the closest to the original DCB sound out of any of the mixes on this disc. Over a gently crunching backbeat (if that isn't a contradiction in terms!), no less than three separate acoustic guitar parts can be heard happily picking away, which is just thrilling to my ears. The pure electronica fans probably won't like this as much, but oh well. David's voice has a bit of an echo to it in some places here, which actually adds to the fullness of the song instead of making it feel like he's all by himself out in computer-land. The strangest thing that most fans will notice is the absence of the "I'm so bored of little gods" intro that led seamlessly out of "Intoxicating" on the album - don't worry, they decided to tack it on at the end instead (which I thought was brilliant). Aside from that, the song is pretty easy to follow if you know the original, and the only real disappointment is the glitch electronic noise that dominates the bridge, where we're used to hearing the thundering drum interlude from Zach Lind (the drummer from Jimmy Eat World) in the original. It just sounds ridiculous to have David's vocals hanging out in the middle of nowhere during that part. If that could be fixed, then I think this mix would actually outdo the original version.

Intoxicating (Pneumatic Mix)
Well, since the intro from "How Great" became its outro, it's only fitting that it leads us back into "Intoxicating". This mix is likely to be the biggest shocker for fans - I don't think I could have ever envisioned it working in a non-organic context, due to how lively and jam-session-like the original version felt. This one makes me feel like I'm in a tunnel with its fuzzy little synth bursts and the overall sense of "space" that the electronic ambience creates. I suppose it's an appropriately disoriented feeling, given the song's spiritually drunken lyrics, so I can go with the flow on that one. The problem is that THEY COMPLETELY LEFT OUT THE CHORUS! I mean, OK, the chorus in this case is just a meaningless "la, la dee da" part, but the rhythm changes in the original version were just the coolest thing due to how slickly the band pulled them off, and are these guys trying to tell me that they're not creative enough to remix in 3/4 time? I'm sorry, but you just don't leave entire sections out of songs when remixing. I can still kind of feel the groove as the song builds to its climax, taking the dizzy coda and shoehorning it into a 4/4 rhythm. It's got promise, but it's ultimately a disappointing remix due to what it leaves out. If the original was one big party, this one's more like stumbling in the darkness, trying to find your way back down the hall to your room after the party.

Deliver Me (Antidromic Mix)
The DCB's take on a song originally recorded by Sarah Brightman gets even further retooled here, completely removing its ominous, descending guitar line and replacing it with little other than a distant, tinkling piano, faint bass, and high-pitched electronic noises that sound like shoes squeaking on a basketball court. This actually works, because the original song was rather ambient to begin with. The synths get rather crowded during the chorus, which can make this mix feel like a bit of a music box. But listen carefully to the elements lurking underneath. There's a little bit of noise that sounds like someone scraping the strings inside of a piano, and some slightly messy electric guitar noodling. If the two song titles that came to mind upon hearing this were "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and "Handshake Drugs", then congratulations, you must be a Wilco fan. I'm a bit irritated that they left out the snippet from the hymn "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus" and the awe-inspiring build of the coda section, "Coming Toward", but still, not a bad job.

Stars (From the Mount Wilson Observatory)
Ironically, it's the least rhythm-driven song from the original album that ends up being the catalyst for the best remix. I have a hard time explaining why, but this mix (named after a place I used to go all the time as a kid, no less) is a thing of beauty. You wouldn't expect it from the hissing and clicking of the background noise, much less the jittery start-stop blurping that comes in after the first verse, but the synths are just so bubbly and emotional on this one, and yet they're not overbearing. It really gives you the feeling of sitting alone on the hillside, looking up at an uncharacteristically clear California sky, hearing only the gentle noise of crickets and other random bugs, and basically all being right with the world in a single moment of clarity. They actually kept the violin from the original version, which is just awesome, but I'm glad that instead of a humdrum guitar strum, we often just have a skeleton of a rhythm to guide us. And again, they kept all the words. It just seems to me like this song was written to be recorded this way - it's the song that sums up Illuminate theme of God using us to reflect His light. It only makes sense that the song should give off an effervescent glow like it does here.

After taking the time to get used to these 8 mixes, I've retracted my original opinion of "nice, but no thanks" and decided that I'd be willing to pony up the cash for my own copy of Sunsets & Sushi. It would have been nice if it could have been expanded into a full-length remix album, since I'd be interested to hear what they would have done with "All Creatures #2", "Only You", and "Heaven Came Down", or perhaps some of the material from Can You Hear Us?, but then, maybe they didn't let us hear those for a reason. Whatever the case, I like having Sunsets as sort of a "parallel universe" to Illuminate, and I actually find myself hoping that the DCB figures out how to incorporate their newly-displayed love of electronica into their next full album. It's a gamble as to whether most DCB fans will like this, so proceed with caution if you don't know a whole lot about electronica. (As my review has probably given away, I have a rather limited understanding myself.)

And who knows, if this little side venture is successful, maybe we'll get Treetops & Teriyaki at some point in the future.

OVERALL WORTH:
No One Like You (Thanksgiving Mix) $1
O Praise Him (All This for a King) (Oceanic Mix) $.50
Open Skies (Dirty Beats Mix) $2
Revolutionary Love (Neo-Mechanical Mix) $.50
How Great (Direct from Satellite City) $1.50
Intoxicating (Pneumatic Mix) $.50
Deliver Me (Antidromic Mix) $1
Stars (From the Mount Wilson Observatory) $2
TOTAL: $9

Band Members:
David Crowder: Lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Jason Solley: Electric guitar
Mike Hogan: DJ, violin
Jack Parker: Keyboards
Mike D.: Bass, programming
B-Wack: Drums

Website: http://www.davidcrowderband.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying