Son Of Tatwatch
A downloader’s diary, cont’d. (If you want to know the ‘methodology’ of this, ask me.)
THE GRID – “Rollercoaster”: My mini-Grid revival continued. “Rollercoaster” is all politely trippy acidesques and that Big Echoey Keyboard Noise that makes me think of cold sweat condensed on venue walls. Hasn’t stood up as well as “Swamp Thing”.
CAN’T REMEMBER ARTIST NAME, THINK IT’S DENISE? – “Don’t Touch”: Please chastise me if I forget to look this up when I get home. Slightly stiff Soca tune with the singer warning dancing partners to keep their hands off. Bit of needless vocoder. One soaring moment at the end as she sings “Watch me as I tremble” but otherwise more work than bliss.
ANONYMOUS HARDCORE CREW – “Bitter Sweet Symphony”: The “Bitter Sweet Symphony” riff turned up on loads of remixes just after the Verve had their hit and none of them seem to be very good. It must have been like a challenge to producers – here’s this massive sample ornamenting quite a gloomy indie song, surely it would be possible to send a club bananas with it (also: ker-ching!). The problem here is that the sample is just TOO stately for the usual bonkers keyboard elaborations to gel: when the sample bows out a nice grinny track is revealed, otherwise it’s all, oh, those fucking Verve strings.
THE GRID – “Texas Cowboys”: Ha the Grid AGAIN. I love the arch little voice saying “Cowboys” and the whip-crack, for a moment there you remember Dave Ball was in Soft Cell. Great sample but this 12″ mix is too long (and could do with being gayer still).
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS IS – What a shambles, do a tracklisting next time Tom. Europop downloaded from Enthusiastic But Mediocre, the chorus starts “TC creep TC creep” (except actual foreign words) if that’s a help. Hook has minipops droids going “ooh – uh huh!” in kitten voices. Over-aerobicised.
A.N. GABBA MANIAC – “Fuck Happy!” – Lengthy sample from ‘confrontational’ comedian (can it be Bill Hicks? That sort of chap anyway, it sounds staged/filmy though so maybe not.) culminating in exhortion “FUCK HAPPY!”. The track then does just that. Roughly.
JUSTUS KOHNKE – “Hot Love” – grabbed from Fluxblog, this is an adorable T Rex cover. I love it when electronica bods do these coy wimp-out versions of old classix, along with pop-punk and happy hardcore remakes it’s a sure way to milk a little more juice out of the husk of pop gone by. There’s been some real thought gone into this – Kohnke swaps the genders and what results is a shy, clumsily erotic hymn to a “boy of gold”, “my twopenny prince”, and of course I find it hard not to think of a gauche fan’s love for Marc B, but this track is so tender and pretty you hardly need complex readings to enjoy it.
Next Episode: More happy hardcore, Christina Milian, and SUPERTRAMP!