Wagon Christ "Throbbing Pouch" Rising High RSN CD 30
The genre known by trend mongers as trip hop made it's splash in 94.
Since then the backlash has been so extreme that I've noticed people
on the internet refer to it as T**P H*P, as though to name it directly
would call down wrath from the gods. The bastard child of hip hop and
acid jazz, trip hop is no better or worse than any other genre; it has
it's share of bad and good records. Throbbing Pouch stands out as one
of the more groovy, listenable discs in this vein.
What Luke Vibert does here is to take the commonplaces of trip hop to
the next labels. The beats are lazy and fat, but never does he settle
for a static loop repeated over and over. Similarly, the jazzy
changes thrown down over the beats always have some motion in them.
Take as an example "Phase Everyday", the fourth track. Starting out
with a distorted sample, in kicks a beat loop that sounds like it
comes from the next room. Laid over the top is an organ and whistle
figure that roams around chromatically as a variety of rhythmic
sources, from a dry 808, low-resolution drum loops, and distant dog
barking noises. This morphs into a syncopated DX-7 dissonant figure
that dissolves into yet another chromatic chord progression. Is Joe
Zawinul in the house? No -- no machine gun soloing. Is Enrico
Morricone in the house? No, but he's next door.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that what Wagon Christ's got that
the others don't is content. You can sit down with a drum loop sample
CD and a couple of Blue note LP's and make something that sounds like
trip hop, but have you made anything that has any harmonic or rhythmic
life of it's own? Probably not.
'Throbbing Pouch' is first and foremost, an immensely listenable album.
This is one that your friends who recoil from Plastikman and Aphex Twin
will love for the sneaky atmospheric haze. It's an album that is completely
uncontaminated by the commonplaces of ambient music, but can be used in
the same way, as a subliminal atmosphere. And those beats and cool-ass
music -- hell, if Warren G could freestyle over this you'd have the
rap album of the year.
Also, if you're lucky, you'll find a copy that comes with the bonus
EP 'AT Atmos' which is even more chilled, less hip hoppy, and every
bit as lovely.
--
kent.williams@cadsi.com -- All views expressed are. Sabado Gigante!
"Someone please explain to me the guy in the bee costume on Univision!"