gtaylor@lasspvax.UUCP (Greg Taylor) (08/17/84)
Hello. This is for some of you out there who are casting around for something
from the Brits that doesn't use lotsa technowhirr and whatever, and doesn't
find itself in the Oi category either. You might wish to check out the work
of 23 Skidoo if you're in an adventurous mood in the import bins.
The group is somewhat difficult to categorize, but I'd generally locate
them in the "neo-atavist" category (it's proved a useful term). They're
heavily rhythmic, with a fair amount of explicitly self-conscious tape-looped
stuff, and a near total avoidance of lyrics (the current album is a bit
of an exception, though)...kinda like one long Tito Puente timbale break in
a cage full of electonic parakeets married to a Joy Division bass track. They
have two earlier EPs out ("the Gospel Comes to New Guinea" and "Seven Songs"),
and an interesting transitional EP "Tearing Up the Plans" (which is sort of
like having Cabaret Voltaire remake the "Pipes of Joujouka"................ and a live recording from last year's WOMAD festival ("The Culling is Coming")
that is my all-time nominee for unlistenable stuff (this makes Lou Reed's
"Metal Machine Music" sound like the Brandenburgs). The band has recently
split into two factions, and most of the current lineup still maintains their
original interest in ritual, and ethnic musics.
The current album is salted through with dub technology, and the bass work of
Sketch from the old Lynx soulsters, doing a wierd apolyptic toast and playing
some fine bass. Their recent single "Coup" is redone on this album to a tape
loop of a VC soldier shouting obscenities on a dark night. You getting the
picture? The title comes from a rather recent interest of theirs in Javanese
drum patterns, which shows up on most all of the second side. None (repeat
*none* of the melodic structure is at all gamelanlike. THeir intent is, I
think, to create a sort of similar structure and ensemble in the post-industrialmode. In this way, they're out beyond the borders that someone like Shreikback
or Savage Republic is diddling away at. This stuff may well not be for the
faint, but "Urban Gamelan" serves as an interesting introduction to their
work, in a form that can *almost* be called commercial or accessible. This
is not for the faint of heart, or those who believe that something must be
loud and fast to fit the mold.
So as we say, "caveat emptor."
Listen Hard,
Greg
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