From Chris Fahey Sent Mon, Nov 17th 1997, 22:23
From Chris Fahey Sent Mon, Nov 17th 1997, 22:23
I just picked up Grand Royal's Liquid Liquid comp. About eight months ago someone on the list mentioned a Liquid Liquid record s/he found. S/he described it in such a way that I knew I had to have it. Now, as if just to prove how much IDM has its finger on some kind of musical pulse, Grand Royal has released this compilation of Liquid Liquid tracks. How convenient for me! And what a happy surprise as well. At first it sounds like a Ninja-Tuney slow rolling break drummy bleepy thing with electro noises fuzzing up fresh live percussion. Then the percussion begins to exclaim its liveness. The bass is right up front too, funky in a strange sort of mechanical way. In many ways, this record reminds me of Gang of Four for it's "souless-soul", groovy syncopated beats delivered with eerie precision. The vocals are *very* sparse and very early-80's new wave in their intonation and melody (or lack thereof). For those of you who don't like vocals, there are only a few songs which will piss you off. The most famous track will of course be #2, "Cavern", which was used by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel in "White Lines". It's interesting to hear what they did with it after having never heard the original song before. First of all, White Lines asserts it's old school status pretty decisively by sampling the main loop in it's entirety. But another interesting element is the little melodic vocal bits GmF/MM also use, paraphrasing the original cryptic lyrics into their own words while retaining the same melodies and sometimes even the same words. Worth a listen if only to broaden your understanding of Hip hip and electro history. This is an excellent compilation. I'm sure it would never have been released if not for the hip hop history connection, but the didactic purpose of the album (particularly since it comes from the beastie label) is clear - early 80's alternative post-punk and new wave can be strangely funky if you open your ears as the founders of hip hop did. Time to bust out the old Wire, Fall, Gang of Four, Pretenders, Blondie, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads, Gary Neuman, Bauhaus, Devo.. well, maybe I'm pushing it a bit, but you know what I mean. I wouldn't want to think of any of this stuff as more important than the funk and soul upon which they themselves rely so heavily, but I think this kind of thing is a hell of a lot better than looking to Twisted Sister as a dance music root (as the Prodigy and it's imminent slew of clones seem to do). -CF