Hi,
quoted 3 lines to my attention for other reasons though, due to a rather interesting>to my attention for other reasons though, due to a rather interesting
>unauthorised 'Red Snapper' mix, which is a 3min long sample of
>'Snapper' from Reeled and Skinned, pitched down 10%...
Speaking of which what is everyone's opinion on 'Prince Blimey' especially
in reference to 'Reeled & Skinned'? I have and love the later, but haven't
gotten around to hearing the fromer, yet.
The review of 'Prince Blimey' in todays Metro went down a lead ballon. Good
to see Warp stuff reviewed in mainstream media, but maybe not when the review
is as negative as the one below...
RED SNAPPER, Prince Blimey (Recollection/Warp)
**
Red Snapper's style is jazz-influenced, industrialised noise and guitar experimentation,
with so much echo that it could have been recorded in a 44 gallon drum. It's a
soundtrack for the creepings of a post-modern gumshoe around urban wastelands in
search of stiffs. Usually, musical form follows function: the artist has an idea to convey
and develops a way of expressing it. Here, it is not clear that there is a function at all,
just meandering stylistic effects and vague alienation. Sometimes, as on Fatboy's Dust
or Lo-beam, there's a throbbing, Massive Attack-style bassline to match the strong
drumming. That's when it sounds like it might go somewhere. Then the groove collapses
into locust squeaks. What's it about? There aren't many clues. The songs have titles
such as Digging Doctor What What and Thomas the Fib, while the band appear on the
cover as photographic shadows hovering over distorted, cartoon-faced people
reminiscent of the freaked-out liberation armies/bank-robbing squads of the early '70s.
As a musical landscape, Prince Blimey is denuded, apparently by design, of human
context or meaning. It may be fashionable to contrive a meaningless noise, but it ain't
real interesting.
JODIE BROUGH
Regards,
John