Boy am I glad that somebody decided to reply to my review -- I was
beginning to feel all sulky because it seemed like it had just dropped
off the edge of the world.
ha == Helen Adriaens <helen@syncnet.xs4all.nl>
ha> oc == ozymandias G desiderata <ogd@organic.com>
ha> Spooky 'Schmoo' [GRRR45]
ha>
ha> 1. original version
ha> 2. stripped down dub mix
ha> 3. steppin razor mix
ha> 4. underworld mix
ha>
ha> I got Schmoo a couple of months ago, paid a hefty price for it
ha> too. In all honesty, I got it for the Underworld (re)mixes as
ha> 'schmoo' itself reminds me too much of dutch tv adverts for
ha> telephone sex. 'oooh ahhh' and 'come to me' repeated
ha> threethousandmillion times ... (1) and (2) for obvious reasons
ha> don't differ much from the two versions on 'Gargantuan' (schmoo and
ha> schmoodub) in their ooh-ahh-ness. I really like (3) and (4) though
ha> ... the Underworld touch saves this 12" for me. The steppin razor
ha> mix gives us clanking sounds, Russian gibberish and distorted
ha> ooh-aah (in the beat). Underworld drive the 'old' Spooky motor
ha> extremely well ...
Well, exactly. The "Steppin' Razor" and "Underworld" mixes are the ones
that I was talking about. They're definitely two of the weirdest tracks
to appear on the early Guerilla releases. I'm fond of the first two
mixes, but I'm fond of them more out of nostalgia than anything
else. Guerilla played a major role in my early DJ career.
I have the "Steppin' Razor" mix on Guerilla's _Dub House Disco 2000_,
and it's my favorite thing on that compilation, if not the entire
Guerilla label (although Aerothrob's "Barracuda" is a close second --
anybody know who Aerothrob were and where they ended up after
Guerilla's demise?). It is indeed clanky, echoey, and very dubbed out
-- it actually prefigures the later Spooky sound nicely, as well as
managing to sound a little bit like G-Man (Gez Varley) at the same
time.
ha> Talking about Underworld: how come I rarely see anybody write about
ha> them on idm? Are they not intelligent enough (anymore)?
ha> Dubnobasswithmyheadman certainly threw my brain into another
ha> dimension ...
I've been wondering that myself. _Second Toughest in the Infants_ is
easily the equal of _Dubnobasswithmyheadman_, and many of the singles
Underworld has been putting out recently contain tracks that are
nothing short of masterpieces (my personal favorite being "Cherry Pie"
off the "Pearls Girl" single). Plus nobody seems to have noticed that
the CD "single" (all 78 minutes of it) of the combined vinyl version of
"Dark & Long" has been reissued and is now easily available (albeit as
an import). My respect for Underworld has grown considerably since I
first heard (and disliked) them many years ago.
ha> I fully agree with you that Spooky deserves another chance. The
ha> new Spooky bears little resemblance to the old. Getting rid of the
ha> all pervading soul divas was the best thing they ever did.
Hmm... in the 'old' Spooky's defense I will say that although
_Gargantuan_ has plenty o' diva on it (which I don't particularly like,
although it made it possible for Spooky to be one of the few dance
groups that both my househead friends and I liked Back In The Day), it
has plenty that's relevant to listeners in IDM-land as well
-- especially those that think of William Orbit's music as somehow
being intelligent (*whistling innocently*).
ha> It took me a while to get used to what I rather derogatorily called
ha> 'church music', i.e. the organsounds on Stereo, but once I put my
ha> bias out to pasture I fell for it. Still more 'dance' than 'brain'
ha> though, is what I thought as I danced my feet off when they played
ha> in Amsterdam last March.
I guess what my review was trying to say is that I think they strike a
good balance of both 'dance' and 'brain' music, if you consider their
entire recent ouevre. "Clank" and "Stereo" are definitely dance
records, but "Shunt" and _Found Sound_ are altogether something else.
While I'm flogging tragically neglected IDM, why haven't more people
talked about the amazing stuff that Tony Thorpe's been putting out on
Language Records? I know that the breaks crew generally think highly of
the records that Endemic Void have put out (which, for my money, are
far more entertaining listening than the Plug series, although not as
good as Squarepusher (just to show you guys that I'm not unduly biased
against overhyped breaksters)), but I thought that Biomuse's LP of last
year (_Wrong X_) was a beautiful piece of completely unclassifiable
industrial acid-jazz techno squeaky headfuckery. It wasn't at _all_
what I expected from a label run by a Moody Boy.
ozymandias
. . . the self-reflecting image of a narcotized mind . . .
ozymandias G desiderata ogd@organic.com Desperate, Deathless
(415)278-5674
http://www.organic.com/Staff/ogd/ ::AOAIOXXYSZ::