On Sun, 30 Jun 1996, Greg Earle wrote:
} Well, the answer to that came quickly enough, when Jack came out with a
} real (human) drummer and a guitarist/saxaphonist. Instead of the disc two
} "Subliminal Sandwich" Meat Beat, we got the "organic" (no pun intended)
} Meat Beat. The sound was horrible for them (probably since they were the
} only ones using real instruments like that), I couldn't hear Jack's vocals,
} the guitarist/saxaphonist was utterly pointless, and the rhythm patterns
} that sound perfect booming out from the records sounded lousy when played
} by the live drummer. Old favorites like "Helter Skelter", "Radio Babylon",
} "God O.D." and "Original Control (Version 2)" (Tam, this is the real title
} of the "I am Electro" sample track) just sounded like pale imitations of
} the originals. To add insult to injury, later on, Underworld came out and
} played a couple of tracks that had the funky Meat Beat thang going, only
} done all electronically. And I stood there thinking, "Now why isn't *Jack*
} doing his tracks like this ... " (And of course, there was the Chems later on
} doing *their* take on the Meat Beat funky drummer thang, done electronically)
I think calling Meat Beat Manifesto's sound 'horrible' is a little much.
Sure they broke out with a live drum kit, sax, and guitar, but you've got
to admit that the drummer was the shit (in a good shit way 8) ), though.
His drum breaks fit in perfectly with the electronic drum tracks and his
timing was right on IMO. Did you catch the one section of the set
where there was an extended drum track with only low Moog-like bass
over the top? That was some serious Meat Beat funk! (If anyone knows
what the hell I'm talking about here, was that a new cut because I didn't
recognize it from the new double album?). Plus it was kind of cool to
here a more improvisational feel to a lot the Meat Beat classics like
Helter Skelter and Radio Babylon. I have to agree with you though about
the guitar and sax, since I could barely even hear those two instruments
in the mix. Jack's vocals did drop out every once in awhile, but they
definitely were loud enough during quite a bit ot the show. You forgot
to mention the addition of the theremin also. I thought that guy in the
back controlling the keyboards and the theremin did a nice job of adding
those great sci-fi sounds into the mix. I'm a big Meat Beat Manifesto fan
myself and it might have been nice to hear some of the tracks from the new
2nd disc, but I don't think the lack of those songs and the addition of
'real' instruments made for a 'horrible' set. At least they were up for
trying something new.
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_/ Eric Frans :: franse@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu _/
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