Fatboy Slim - Praise You (Skint)
After 'The Rockerfella Skank' and the surf-styled 'Gangsta' Trippin''
you'd be forgiven for expecting Norman Cook to keep up the beach party
and serve us another bouncy anthem. That's the trend and, for the most
part, Fatboy Slim hasn't strayed too far from home. However, 'Praise
You' does more; it transcends the trend. It's loaded with sampled
hooks and hammering beats, but there's an extended vocal, the perfect
companion for the ever-so-catchy tune. Fatboy Slim is truly dragging
dance music (and indeed music in general) painlessly into the next
millennium. Pretty fly for a white guy.
3 Colours Red - Beautiful Day (Creation)
Just like everything else 3 Colours Red have released to date,
'Beautiful Day' is catchy, melodic and all the usual stuff that makes
for a rockin' singsong. Again, though, just like everything else
they've released, it also sounds a little too laboured, punk-rock by
numbers, and lacking that certain something that makes the difference
between weak and powerful music. It'll undoubtedly keep the money
flowing until someday they release a song or album that'll merit real
praise. Until then, it's as average as they come.
PJ Harvey - The Wind (Island)
It never ceases to amaze, the way PJ Harvey slips into any number of
characters and styles. This time she's Catherine who "listens to the
wind blow". The quiet guitars and strings, the whispered "ssshhhhh"
and the repetitive drum beat all make for an eerie piece of music,
breezy and underdone, although not as inventive as some of Harvey's
other stuff. There are better songs on her recent LP release 'Is This
Desire?', but 'The Wind' will more than do for now.
Llama Farmers - Big Wheels (Beggars Banquet)
There comes a time in everyone's life when one simple song sounds like
it could change the world. 'Big Wheels' isn't that song, but for a
moment it had what it takes. A sublime, melodic, punk/pop mini-rant
that eats your heart from the inside out, 'Big Wheels' is an
indication of a talent waiting to pounce. Just about teasing enough to
let you know that the trump card has yet to come.
Cassius - Cassius '99 (Virgin)
Not a peep from Daft Punk in the last while so here's Cassius to pick
up that metaphorical baton and keep the French bleep-scene alive.
'Cassius '99' has the makings of a superb and wacky pop-house number,
but too many stops and restarts jilt the rhythm and all we're left
with is a disappointingly sub-Daft Punk attempt.
Greece 2000 - Three Drives '99 (Hooj Choons)
Why record companies like Hooj Choons continually feel the need to
mess around with already magnificent tunes is baffling. This is the
third or fourth remix of 'Three Drives' and, like the previous
versions, is no improvement on the original. Those newly-added
floating vocals can be slightly annoying to those who remember the
first and best mix of this trance classic. Leave it alone, please.
Songstress - See Line Woman (Locked On)
It's a pretty ominous task, attempting to re-record, remix and re-vamp
a Nina Simone track as a dancefloor-friendly garage tune but, for all
intents and purposes, Songstress have done just that with 'See Line
Woman' ... and done a damn fine job too. It never strays towards
gratuity and doesn't shame the original. Think easy-listening garage
with soul and beats.
Armand Van Helden - You Don't Know Me (ffrr)
Remember that bangin' remix of Tori Amos' 'Professional Widow'? That
was Armand Van Helden's handiwork. Remember the suave drum n' bass
remix of CJ Bolland's 'Sugar Is Sweeter'? That too was Van Helden's
doing. Now he's turning his hand to NY house and proving, yet again,
that he's as good as the best of them. Is it any wonder he's already
gone to Number 1?
Hole - Malibu (Geffen)
Chug, chug, chug ... whine, whine, whine ... verse ... chorus … verse
... and on it goes. Hole's 'Malibu' isn't entirely reprehensible but
its saving graces are few. Yeah, it's catchy and powerful but it's
also tedious and passive, in a way that only true drivel can ever
claim to be.
The Walls - The Night I Called It A Day (Earshot)
Steve and Joe Wall, formerly of The Stunning and currently operating
under the somewhat corny moniker, The Walls, have always confessed to
a liking for electronic elements in music. Well, that's what the press
release says anyway. On the evidence of 'The Night I Called It A Day'
they couldn't possibly get more gratingly dull. And this supposed
newfound love for electronica? Not here, baby, not a twiddle or a
squeak in sight. I still can't tell the difference between the
original and the remix.
by Michael Gleeson.
