Techno, Acid Jazz and Whatever

No, SLUG Magazine hasn’t decided to copy Audio Spank and write about the latest X96 discovery. Those fuckers just discovered Tina Turner — God, is that hip or what? I wonder if either staff can answer this trivia question — what was the name of the father to Tina’s first child? Kerry, Bill, Gina? Here’s a hint: he played guitar on “Rocket 88.” Electronic music has been featured in SLUG ever since I began writing for the rag, and that was many years ago. 

Chemical Brothers
Dig Your Own Hole
Astralwerks 

Sorry lemmings, I’ve owned a copy of Exit Planet Dust since before the release date. The Chemical Brothers are hardly a new duo to me. Now that they have been selected to save rock ‘n’ roll and the Musicland record store chain (I read it in Spin, I swear), thousands of teenagers can fund a Dig Your Own Hole purchase by selling their Offspring and Green Day CDs — the rest of us can move on. All the hippie bands jamming away on their guitars had best invest in a computer, because an acid high now and always was greatest when the music was psychedelic, not to mention the exceptionally creative jams the Chemical Brothers devise with machines. Dig Your Own Hole is psychedelic tripping music, and if it manages to shake a few butts onto a dance floor, so be it. 

What is “Setting Sun” after all, except a return to the spasmodic jerking brought on by a strychnine-laced dose? The only difference is the mechanical beats. Who does the Gallagher bloke think he’s fooling with that one? Repetition, repetition, repetition — ever listened to “Einstein on the Beach?” 

Now I’m going to stretch a few memories. There used to be a band around Salt Lake City going by the name of Subminiature Basic. They performed in small spaces of the arty type back around 1983. More than anything else, Dig Your Own Hole reminds me of that band ­minus the female screamer — firearm cocked with the technology of the ’90s. All the Chemical Brothers have done with this album is update the avant-garde of the past while mining the fields of hip hop, psychedelic, dub, disco — and what a masterwork they created! Retrace the long, dusty hike to the temperature inversion of the smoky mountain meadow — the sight of the first meeting of the Rainbow Tribes back in ’71, because if this shit catches on like it is supposed to, a solar generator will provide the power four years hence as the Chemical Brothers play to 500,000 at the 30th Anniversary of that historic event. 

City Of Industry
Soundtrack
Island 

I haven’t seen the flick and I probably never will, but the soundtrack is filled with dark and depressing tones. Massive Attack, Tricky, Bomb The Bass and Lush remixed with other less familiar names have contributed a song, hoping that the soundtrack will take off, and the royalties will pay their past-due bills. It only takes one hit, and all participants get paid. Just ask Meices. Good luck. Have another look at the bands. Massive Attack and Tricky can surround themselves with mystique, get into trouble, have dreams of press clippings piled up and still the general public isn’t buying in. Why? It could be that actual talent is involved. One listen to “Last Night” by Lush is enough to bring back a vision of Vampyros Lesbos and how many people purchased a copy of that CD? Tricky can do no wrong, unless his personal life is involved, Bomb The Bass is kicking out some beats and Justin Warfield sounds suspiciously like Deadsy (reviewed elsewhere) with stronger BPMs and more echo, and after a few thousand “alternative rock” discs,  anything with a difference deserves praise. Death In Vegas has drum and bass mixed in a rub-a-dub style with fragile female vocals … zzzzzz … that would indeed be trance, Palm Skin Productions has the fey/gay obviously British singer and they manage to survive’ without a keyboard lashing, Lionrock abuts rock and industrial; Butter 08 is all drum bleeps … an impressive soundtrack featuring some experiments in music.

Joey Beltram
Live Mix
Logic Records 

Remember back a few issues when SLUG Magazine reviewed JB2? That was Joey Beltram and I think I placed him in the “music for cardiovascular improvement” category. He made a label switch for the latest release and he’s crossed a border or two. Since Beltram makes his living as a DJ, a live recording should capture him at his best. If he wasn’t any good, no one would give him money to DJ, one would think. Rather than stick with the pure instrumental aspect, . . which is fine for those with a guitar and the talent to use it.in an innovative manner, Beltram has decided to include a few examples of the human voice on his latest. Machine noise is fine when the genre is industrial. I tend to desire more warmth when the genre is techno. The musical pace remains the same except our boy Joey is intent on inspiring floor-filling action. The entire concept remains foreign to me: I was never one to purchase disco for home enjoyment and I don’t quite grasp the concept of techno as music for the living environment. The highway is another tale to tell. Imagine a Utah summer traffic jam with a $1,000 “unit” in the sports utility vehicle. There the soccer mom sits, late for practice, and about fifteen little boys and girls are beating the upholstery and themselves into a bloody pulp while downing the sugary “treats” for after the game while Joey Beltram encourages hyperactive misbehavior, That is the spot—the G-spot—of Utah heaven. The vision to place in the mind is beside the vehicle peering in at the mayhem as the freeway becomes a parking lot. 

Servitron
Spare Parts
Amrep

Servitron is not technically an electronica construct. They receive a place among the rest because of a robot “image.” Machine #1: Z408X plays the drums, Machine #2: Proto Unit V3 plays keyboard and sings, Machine #3: OOzXI, plays guitar and sings and Machine #4: Gammatron, plays bass. The 8-song EP is DEVO, the B-52’s and Man (… or Astroman?) thrown together in a recording studio. Spare Parts is another in the Deadsy format. The tribute to ’80s “new wave” is evident, but the creativity is high. These machines composed songs concerning their troubled existence as l’s, D’s,and a few moving parts. They have plans to take over the world and make things better for human-dominated inanimate objects. The concept is hardly a new one; the manner Servitron uses to document their lives and their plans prompts an opinion denying simple novelty. 

Daft Punk
Homework
Virgin 

It’s a duo with machines. Daft Punk rises out of the morass of boardroom boredom on the basis of a throbbing beat that never quits, an emphasis on dub and the ability to conceive modern disco to thrill the mind and soul. The endless, mindless electronic throb is augmented by a cascade of additional found samples and sounds as each composition builds to completion. It’s as if one said the little stream found additional voices to combine with the flow and become a mighty river. The waves do indeed crash on the beach of “Fresh.” Composers in search of commercial success, as Daft Punk illustrate, have discovered a crossover market outside the sensory overload of “clubs.” Deep Forest found a place among holistic healers and Daft Punk’s “Fresh,” if used in combination with the correct mental imagery and shamanistic analog drumming, submits a calming vision to shrink any tumor. “Around The World,” on the other hand, is tediously repetitive action for eliminating all benefits gained with “Fresh.” As “Rollin’ & Scratchin'” begins to build on the foundation of the aforementioned give said the little stream becoming a mighty river it becomes evident that Daft Punk have taken several cues from the avant-garde academy of diffi­cult listening. “Teacher” crosses the east­ side/west side market street to name check everyone from Joey Beltram to Ray Davies to Dr. Dre in tributary hip hop style. “Rock ‘n Roll’ is an exercise in chalkboard scratching stretching to interminable length. “Oh Yeah” deserves a shout-out to minimalist composer Jimmy Pop Ali of the Bloodhound Gang, party people oh yeah. Homework the CD has the beats to keep bodies humpin’ and pumpin’ on the hardwood and sufficient abrasive tedium to please the jaded.

Rockers Hi-Fi
Mish Mash
Warner Bros. 

Rockers Hi-Fi included software in their latest CD which allows aspiring home DJs to remix the music. Their sample use includes a wide span of spoken word, folk, R&B, jazz with a heavy emphasis on reggae and dub: Adam Clayton Powell encourages one and all to “Burn Baby Burn” and “Keep The Faith, baby.” A slight amount of politics can’t hinder the mindless flip flop and fly away of the chosen genre. Rockers Hi-Fi don’t appear much concerned with physical action because their Mish Mash concentrates on the heady brain functions encountered when mood music is required. Mood music is often used as a prelude to physical action as the hip hop/dancehall/jazzed up “Now I Deliver” shouts out. I’ll be damned if the Rockers Hi-Fi don’t make the same crossover attempt as Daft Punk. “Uneasy Skankin” begins with the most lovely acoustic harp, but sadly the holistic crowd will dismiss the dub aspect as not fit for human consumption … unless the brief Burt Bacharach moment catches an auditory nerve amplified by Miracle Ear. Timothy Leary espoused the before dosing make a plan belief during his professor years. When planning the music for the next dose select Mish Mash as pre-dawn mellow space.

Acid Jazz Totally re-wired 10
Acid Jazz Totally re-wired 12
Hollywood Records 

Acid Jazz has always reminded me more of CTI’s late ’70s releases than music expanding on or initiating a separate movement. Neither of these discs does much to dispel the notion. The tenth volume in the series is comprised of early to mid- ’90s selections. Volume 12 appears to be more recent recordings. Both contain pleasant melodies as played by the CTI studio orchestra. The CTI studio orchestra isn’t present, but the flutes, strings, vibes, organ and breathy background singers most certainly are. Take the simple pop fusion equation, algebraically calculate the sum of funk and light sampling into the formula, remix digitally, graph the result into sine wave format and copy direct to compact disc. Gregory Isaacs appears on both Volume 10 and 12. He is better known for lover’s rock than acid jazz, but there is a drug component involved and Dread Flimstone is too. A Latin influence is also felt when Soul Station enter the picture on Volume 10. The soccer mom of the Joey Beltram piece is encouraged to select either disc as a calming influence on the team.

Read more from the SLUG archives:
Written in Blood: May 1997
The Muffs

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