Big Beat Conspiracy
BBC1 (Pagan)
by Scott Hefflon
A comp fulla hotshots and soon-to-be-hotshots, Big Beat Conspiracy is one you wanna check out. If you’re into the “good music” aspect of electronic music (as in, like, melody, hooks, memorable lyrics/samples) and are sick of feeling like you must be missing something ’cause you think the new jungle lion king is just a stoner like you with a really nice drum machine, a good ear for cool beats, and a phenomenal publicist, there’s plenty to stick your fork into here. Chemical Brothers and Sniper give us songs, Fatboy Slim impresses as always, Underworld contribute a ten-minute building, flowing wonder, and Psychedelic Smith‘s “Fixy Jointy” (remixed by Fatboy Slim) does a great pots’n’pans parody of rock guitar wankery, rap skip’n’slurp, fat woman singin’, and Jethro flutin’ I’ve ever heard to the “Louie Louie” rhythm! Ditto with the ever-morphing “Midlander” by Bentley Rhythm Ace: A snide tip o’ the hat to old car horns, floozy barroom blues, and far too many elements to register, all shifting continuously as the song does an about face, held tenuously together by one single sound that lets you know it’s still the same song. While it may not sound like a compliment, I mean it as one: If Miami Vice were filmed in ’98, the theme song would be “Insanity Sauce” by Surreal Madrid. These gents have the big beats, the singable rhythms, and the cool pop culture sprinkles that’ve made the big boys big. Love that harmonica at the end. From the darker, more distorted and stripped-down side of the electronic moon, Hardknox‘s “Cos I Can” doesn’t have the cock-knockin’-against-my-leg beat of the others, but it has an implied menace, like a very large guy walking unconcernedly down the middle of the sidewalk. Laidback‘s “International” has a nice ’70s funky guitar thing going on atop a Big Ass Beat and various hip-hoppy shouts and all sorts of squishy sounds. I think I hear house “pianos” playing ska-gets-wired, but that could simply be influence-overload. Surprisingly, I was bored by the dark trance of the bass-heavy Death in Vegas remix “People Get Ready” (ready to what? Fall asleep?), but I was probably just spoiled by the previous action-packed tracks.
(14724 Ventura Blvd. Penthouse Sherman Oaks, CA 91403)
