Mike Oregano - Dance Your Face Off! Vol. 2
One man band Mike Oregano is ready to drop his latest album, Dance Your Face Off! Vol. 2 and it is a definite change of pace for the reggae/hip hop music man. The electronic elements of this album will throw listeners back to the 80’s, give ‘em a spin and catch them right back up to speed in 2020, all while maintaining the Oregano spice that listeners have come to love and expect. In this time of pandemic and social outbreak, Dance Your Face Off! Vol. 2 brings a respite from the chaos that this year has tried to throw at us.
The album begins with “The Oregano Way,” introducing a heavily electronic beat paired with high energy rap to let you know what Mike Oregano is all about. “I’ve been around the block, got everybody screamin’ ‘like the spice!’ given a brand new meanin’,” will have everyone excited for Mike Oregano to roll through. Opening the album with a hype track like this one generates definite intrigue.
The album continues with a vintage dance beat and a sweet and contagious melody in the chorus. In true Oregano style, Mike delivers hot fire in the rap verses of “Baby, When the Lights Go Out...,” followed by a soulful refrain. The lyrics match the sensual vibe of the music with lines like, “Feel the music, wanna touch your body, I can never turn you down,” and, “just let me know you want it, I’ll put my hands up on it.” The track maintains the dance vibe introduced in the album while bringing something different and new to the mix.
The title track, “Dance Your Face Off!” serves as sort of an interlude to the album, preparing listeners for what else they’re in for. The lyrics command listeners to do as the album tells them and “dance your face off,” while giving them something to move to. The track is interjected with a robotic sounding voice effect as well as a feminine vocal run to give the song variety.
“Paranoia” keeps the album on track with electro dance vibes describing the state of the world and how it’s weighing on us. The urgency of the song evokes an alertness in listeners, describing an inner anxiety that many people are experiencing in 2020. Lyrics like “Run you can’t fight it, oh no, you can’t hide paranoia,” dares to touch that part of our minds that won’t shut off while we’re learning to navigate in a worldwide pandemic.
Oregano calms the senses from the previous song with “Lips Like Nicotine,” a mild tempo tune with an absolute rhythm that relaxes the mind and eases the imagination. The track brings listeners to their place of peace. It’s upbeat yet hypnotic, bringing back the sensuality introduced earlier in the album and demonstrating consistency as well as variety.
“Two Beers & A Black ’N Mild” hides nothing about Mike Oregano’s idea of a good time. Lines like “Dancing with the green lady, every night every day, and when she wants to play, man I just float away!” leaves little to the imagination about the solace and sustenance of herbal remedies. The song is a feel-good track, no matter what a listener's version of two beers and a black and mild may be.
Oregano brings listeners through a zombie apocalypse in “Quarantine Shuffle,” adding monstrous roars and human screams to a dance beat. It builds suspense in the song until a voiceover from DJ Oregano comes in with a warning: “The undead are everywhere, if you see them, shoot immediately and remove the brain from the skull!” Although the message is clearly fictional, the zombie analogy is a pretty accurate parallel to being under mass quarantine due to the COVID pandemic. “Stay at home, stay safe, do not go out,” warns the voice in the track, and if that isn’t the slogan for 2020, regardless of whether it’s due to a virus or a zombie apocalypse, I don’t know what is.
Last on the album is “Corona,” a mellow way of describing such a sudden and tragic epidemic while also dealing with racial conflict that has recently arisen. The track urges people to be a part of a positive change in a negative environment. “Tensions have risen to panic and press, like more, more, more, but it’s time for less so sing with me and let's clean this mess,” calls for a change in not only policy, but humanity. Oregano provides an eerie view of the world’s situation, but also a vision of improvement, and optimism that we can “kill the Corona.”
In just eight tracks, Mike Oregano has managed to organize the chaos of 2020 into one compilation. It covers everything from mania, to relaxation, to anxiety, all the way to empowerment. The mix of music is more than enough to keep listeners curious since each track is so different from the last. While the music is so diverse, the messages relate very heavily to one another. Be good to each other, be good to yourself and Dance Your Face Off!
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Casey Wolfe 🐺
Oregano Entertainment Network
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