Greg Bowes
It’s a rare pleasure these days to come across electronic music that isn’t bound to the latest dance floor fad or the newest pre-set sounds. In a market thoroughly saturated with soulless imitations of the last hit formula there are fortunately some techno pioneers who see past the music-by-numbers scenario. Because machines like the sampler enable them to borrow from and digitally reassemble their various influences they’re able to create absorbing and unlikely hybrids.
This Christmas there are a few excellent releases out there that breathe some life into modern music, and that are sure to outlive passing trends. These discs might not ignite your New Year’s party, but they’re sure to provide keen listening for years to come.
First up are the Future Sound of London, who return with Dead Cities (Virgin). The British duo of Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans have been setting their own agenda since the early Nineties, when they used the house music blueprint to cut some dancefloor odysseys. These tracks were simultaneously funky and innovative, and still pack a fresh punch today.
On Dead Cities they continue to lean into the less obvious areas explored on their last two Virgin releases, Lifeforms and ISDN, only they pull it off more convincingly. Real-time and environmental recordings are snapped up into a fascinatingly constructed digital vision, which could probably best be described as “freak” jazz. Double-basses and guitars echo in vast febrile sound washes, and phased flutes or strangled saxes are fixed to fiery industrial and jungle rhythms. It’s an alive and organic album, constantly mutating in a sizzling electric flux.
The limited edition version comes with a 196-page booklet, containing rich computer-enhanced imagery and suitably out-of-whack text.
And that Tricky kid returns to dish out more of his tortured soul to the world with Pre-Millennium Tension (Fourth and Broadway). It picks up from the half-formed dirty scrawls of his Nearly God project album from earlier this year, and the 10 tracks here are sketches of perverse pop. Recorded in Jamaica, it’s consequently doped and drowsy in places, but at times it’s remarkably discordant too, and the combination of creepy blues loops and white-noise shards provide the perfect backdrop for Tricky and Martina’s bruised sentiments.
Christiansands, the first single, was given to ageing songsmith Elvis Costello to perform his first remix. It seems that with Tricky the apparently inappropriate becomes merely another piece in a surprising and stark picture. Other examples can be found in lines like “she’s my toasted sandwich”, or the Creole drawl over terse and minimal tattoo on Ghetto Youth.
On the whole its amalgamation of reggae, hip -hop, blues and rock overlaid with threatened intoning is compelling, immersing one in an edgy and cathartic twilight.
If you don’t believe the devil has all the best tunes try your damndest to grab a copy of Funky Green Dogs’ Get Fired Up (Twisted). This is the long-awaited debut album from Murk productions team, and its uplifting veneer and darkly groovy undertow are already applying pressure on dance floors worldwide.
LOOK & LISTEN’S TOP10
Mashamplani: Hey Kop
Mashamplani 2: Kunjalo Kunjalo
Boom Shaka: It’s our Game
Bayete: Umkhaya Lo
Arthur: Kaffir
Rebecca: Uzube Nam
Abashante: Girls
Chiskop: Akusheshi
Doc Shebeleza: Skumfeto
M’du: Ipompe
MICHELLE CONSTANT’S TOP 10
Urban Creep: Tightroper
Karoo: Sticks and Stones
Stimela: Out of the Ashes
Springbok Nude Girls: It became a Weapon
Battery 9: Strop
Henry Ate: Slap in the Face
Famous Curtain Trick: Famous Curtain Trick
QKumba Zoo: Wake Up and Dream
Sugardrive: Snapshots
YVONNE FONTEYN’S CHOICE
Springbok Nude Girls: It Became a Weapon
Famous Curtain Trick: Famous Curtain Trick
Amersham: Pickled
NoaNoa: World of Men
Urban Creep: Tightroper
The Usual: Six Songs from the Inside
GLYNIS O’HARA’S CHOICE
Tananas: Unamunacua
Be Like Water: Un
Pops Mohammed: Ancestral Healing
Mzwakhe Mbuli: KwaZulu-Natal
Soweto String Quartet:Renaissance
Pressure Cookies : Swallow
Anton Goosen: Bushrock
This year saw visits from a host of international stars — including Luciano Pavarotti, Tina Turner, Tracy Chapman, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Bread, Meatloaf, Tevin Campbell, Randy Crawford, ZZ Top. Even Michael Jackson popped by for a press conference. But the real breakthrough was the mass of world class DJs who dropped in for a spin: Ministry of Sound, Mrs Wood, DJ Morpheus, Danny Rampling, Josh Wink, Tony de Vit, Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Carl Cox and the fabulous George (above), to mention a few.