I just picked up Grand Royal's Liquid Liquid comp.
About eight months ago someone on the list mentioned a Liquid Liquid
record s/he found. S/he described it in such a way that I knew I had to
have it. Now, as if just to prove how much IDM has its finger on some kind
of musical pulse, Grand Royal has released this compilation of Liquid
Liquid tracks. How convenient for me! And what a happy surprise as well.
At first it sounds like a Ninja-Tuney slow rolling break drummy bleepy
thing with electro noises fuzzing up fresh live percussion. Then the
percussion begins to exclaim its liveness. The bass is right up front too,
funky in a strange sort of mechanical way. In many ways, this record
reminds me of Gang of Four for it's "souless-soul", groovy syncopated
beats delivered with eerie precision. The vocals are *very* sparse and
very early-80's new wave in their intonation and melody (or lack thereof).
For those of you who don't like vocals, there are only a few songs which
will piss you off.
The most famous track will of course be #2, "Cavern", which was used by
Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel in "White Lines". It's interesting to hear
what they did with it after having never heard the original song before.
First of all, White Lines asserts it's old school status pretty decisively
by sampling the main loop in it's entirety. But another interesting
element is the little melodic vocal bits GmF/MM also use, paraphrasing the
original cryptic lyrics into their own words while retaining the same
melodies and sometimes even the same words. Worth a listen if only to
broaden your understanding of Hip hip and electro history.
This is an excellent compilation. I'm sure it would never have been
released if not for the hip hop history connection, but the didactic
purpose of the album (particularly since it comes from the beastie label)
is clear - early 80's alternative post-punk and new wave can be strangely
funky if you open your ears as the founders of hip hop did. Time to bust
out the old Wire, Fall, Gang of Four, Pretenders, Blondie, Cabaret
Voltaire, Talking Heads, Gary Neuman, Bauhaus, Devo.. well, maybe I'm
pushing it a bit, but you know what I mean. I wouldn't want to think of
any of this stuff as more important than the funk and soul upon which they
themselves rely so heavily, but I think this kind of thing is a hell of a
lot better than looking to Twisted Sister as a dance music root (as the
Prodigy and it's imminent slew of clones seem to do).
-CF