America Olivio and Carmen Perez Head to the Club

There's something to be said for pop dance music. Commercial house and trance obviously has it's place in the world and if you've ever been overseas, you'll find that this stuff totally clogs up the charts like a hairball. Some of it is ridiculously bad (see Eiffel 65) while some of it is almost tolerable. Amazingly this phenomenon has never really caught on in the States as dance music to this day is still relegated to the underground. But every once and a while someone will try and break through the underground and the two artists below are all trying to do just that...they might not ever find success here in the States, but given half the chance in Europe these guys will all be gargantuan.

America Olivo, is a kind of hybrid, pop and r&b singer that can actually sing. This of course actually makes her perfect for taking up the role of diva and on her single, Deja Vu it's a role she totally plays up. With every commercial trance riff ramped up to ten, she wails her way across the track and actually comes off better than most who try the same thing. But, as with most vocal house that's uber commercial it gets a bit cheesy at times. Just how many times can you repeat, "Deja Vu?" I lost count around 25. Still that being said, there are some actually cool moments on the single, The Booth Pimps Club Mix is actually salvageable and has just enough of an edge to it that it might actually fool a crowd of non-suspecting club goers...if only it would lose that vocoder intro though. (on a side note...all vocoders must be destroyed...they're horrible and THE biggest cliche in dance music)

Up next is Carmen Perez, who essentially goes for the jugular with a synth heavy pop mix that's not nearly as dance pop as it is pure pop. Her single, "State of Emergency" is like classic freestyle-like pop from Miami in 1987. The song is super quick paced, has an overt Latin influence in it and would have been utterly gargantuan on Power 96 in Miami about 15 years ago. The song is perfect radio material as it's hooks are bigger than the state of Texas and no matter how hard you try, you'll never forget her singing, "State of emergency." The mixes that follow this either play up the Latin feel or attempt to make the song bigger and sexier with mixed results. Of the four mixes here, "Ellis Miah's Club Mix" is probably the best and brings back memories of massive house songs from the late 90's. Not so bad then.

Both America and Carmen have talent and their singles, while being a bit commercial, aren't half bad. With just a little less in the cliche department both artists could be absolutely massive on both sides of the pond. I would love to see both artists work with some like Junior Sanchez...my guess is the results would be un-real.