DANCE REVIEWS

Rip It Up, Issue 232, 1 December 1996, Page 26

DANCE REVIEWS

FUNKY GREEN DOGS Get Fired Up (MCA) The Funky Green Dogs are Oscar Gaetan and Ralph Falcon. Oscar and Ralph are better known as the Murk boys and... Eh? what’s that? You haven’t heard of Murk? OK, rewind... The boys live in Miami, home of the Miami bass sound, and not exactly known for its house music. However, living in Miami’s plastic paradise hasn’t stopped two Christian boys from making some deliciously phat and funky house. The Murk sound is based on dirty stomping beats, the odd acid line, generous helpings of uplifting vocals and most of all, big gritty basslines. Funky Green Dogs is just an another name Murk like to work under, and as an album, Get Fired Up works about as well as you could expect a collection of thumping house cuts to. It’s a quality collection though, very tuff and very American. Danny Tenaglia is executive producer, and you can bet he hammers this stuff. One word of advice, these cuts are designed for club systems, so turn it up... VARIOUS ARTISTS Live at the Social Volume 1: Mixed by the Chemical Brothers (Heavenly Recordings) VARIOUS ARTISTS Live At The Social Volume 1: Mixed by Jon Carter (Monkey Mafia) (Heavenly Recordings) Two very entertaining mix CDs from the Heavenly Social crew. The Social started off as a Sunday night in the basement of a UK pub called The Albany. The Chemicals were residents for a while, and became famous not for their mixing ability, but for their inspiring mish-mash of party music. The Social is about losing it to hip-hop, ragga, house, funk, rock, and anything else that makes a crowd; jump in other words, no rules. Enough history. Firstly, I think the Chemical Brothers disc is the superior. They start with a nicely cut up intro and proceed into the head wrecking beats of Meat Beat Manifesto. Moving quickly through some raw hip-hop via Red Snapper and Eric B and Rakim’s ‘Juice’, the pace is upped with the classic Chemical’s mix of ‘Packet of Peace’. The gritty break beats and sreaming guitars keep coming thick and fast, with bombs from Metro and DJ Who. They go all techno on us with the acid house monster that is Funk d’ Void’s ‘Jack Me Off’, and bring it all back down with the unfeasibly funky ragga of ‘Wede Man’ by Selectah.

Jon Carter’s mix is also way funky and mixed quite well — it’s just way too ragga heavy for my liking. VARIOUS ARTISTS Wipeout 2097 the Soundtrack (Virgin) This is the second Wipeout compilation, which, in a cunning new form of interactive marketing, is actually the soundtrack to the computer game Wipeout, available . on Sony Playstation. While playing the game (which is good!) you can choose which track you want to listen to, therefore justifying any interactive claims. And surprisingly (yeah, yeah, call me cynical...), there are plenty of good tracks here from some of the biggest names in crossover dance music, as well as some more underground talents. FSOL contribute the industrial strength ‘We Have Explosive’. Fluke contribute the slamming, hypnotically building ‘Usik’, and the Chemical Brothers drop through with the power-packed electro-fest of ‘Loops of Fury’. There are a couple of typically dark breakbeat cuts from Photek and Source Direct, but my favourite track is undoubtedly Daft Punk’s absolutely mad ‘Musique’ — a crazy FX laden trip through stomping beats and cut and pasted disco samples — absolutely tearin’. Quite good sleeve notes too. VARIOUS ARTISTS Rap Flavas (Sony) . Another rap compilation, full of varied flavours to . tempt those with an appetite for hip-hop. It’s a bit of a hit-and-miss affair, but with 16 tracks, you at least get a good selection to choose from. The weaker cuts include ‘Pimp of the Year’ by Dru Down and the overrated Funkdoobiest’s ‘Rock On’. On the positive, check Eightball’s ‘Break ’em Off’, MC Ren as he explains how to ‘Keep it Real’, and two tracks from The Fugees, ‘Fu-Gee-La’ and their mix of Cypress Hill’s ‘Boom Biddy Bye’. As a compilation this leans towards the smoother G-funkin’ R&B end of hiphop. If that sounds like you, check it out. UNITONE HIFI Boomshot . ' (Incoming) . . Third long-player from our favourite local bottom heavy dub outlaws. A certain feeling of good old fashioned organic warmness pervades most of the tracks here, with a definite intention to stay true to the roots of original dub-wise styles. This - is the 90s though, so there is plenty of electronic trickery and lashings of studio tomfoolery, and of course, we wouldn’t have it any other way. The title track and album highlight, ‘Boomshot’, is a rude-boy killer, an upbeat dancefloor destroyer, with punchy bass and slinky grace. All up this is yet another accomplished album of comtemporary homegrown dub. Where too next then? VARIOUS ARTISTS Macro Dub Infection Volume 2 (Virgin) The first infection was a contagious affair indeed, including some extreme soundbites from the lost reigons of dub. Volume 2 also delivers, as again we are launched into the darker realms. Rest assured, this .is not an excursion into fluffy ambience, but something much more disturbing. Yep, there’s a definite industrial bent to this,

which can sometimes be irritating, but in the context of this compilation seems entirely appropriate. Bill Laswell strums a mean and funky bass on ‘Sacred System Dub’, underpinning a dark atmospheric world of sound, echco and delay. Hailing from New York, Him presents ‘Liquid Boy’ — a beat heavy fest incorporating hip-hop samples and scratching, to create a cosmic funkathon even Bootsy would approve of. The incomparable and ‘definitely out there on his own trip’ Plug, pops in with ‘Keen as Mustard’ — an abstract breakbeat number, featuring a funky-as-hell bassline and some rather mad sped up vocal samples. Strange as. Jammin’ Unit drop an electro ridden bomb with 'Handbag Dub’, and those are just some highlights. If you like your beats deep, dark and fuckedup, this is one disease you need to catch. GENASIDE II New Life for the Hunted (Polygram) Just as American urban oppresion gave rise to hip-hop, a comparable effect in the UK has seen first the rise of house and techno, then breakbeat, and now, it could be argued, it is time for Genaside II — the deliberate dissection and slaughter of beats and rhymes. Genaside II are a collective of producers who like to work with a selection of guest producers and vocalists. Two of the latter are Rose Williams and Sharon Williams, who both provide heartfelt soul to complement the varied beatscapes of the producers. And in a first for a UK group, three cuts were recorded in the hallowed Wu Tang Studios, Shalion, New York. (Wu Tang! Wu Tang!) These tracks are noticably more upbeat than your usual Wubanger, but they definitely contain the same level of barely contained fury. Intense. The title track is a brooding, moving, string-soaked instrumental set to a hip-hop beat. There’s even a distorted, jungle-ised cover of ‘Under the Bridge’. A varied album that spreads itself across a wide and ambitous scope and, mostly, pulls it off in fine style. VARIOUS ARTISTS Danny Tenaglia presents Gag Me With a Tune (MCA) This is a collection of 18 tracks from New York dance label Maxi. Presumably Maxi chose the tracks and then gave Mr Tenaglia an unfeasibly large wad of folding to play them out one after the other at ‘NYC’s hottest club’ (we aren’t told which one). The results, of course, are quite good. With the fall from grace of a certain Junior Vasquez, Tenaglia is arguably New York’s hottest house DJ, and he rips this one up in fine fashion. You have to understand though, this is deep house American style, which means slow(ish) beats, screaming vocals, and rattling percussion. Anyway, after a slow start Danny, finds his groove, the mixes just keep coming thick and fast, and he never misses a beat. If you like the Funky Green Dogs or the Tribal label, file them next to this. VARIOUS ARTISTS Shoot tha Pump (Deconstruction) This is a mixed, hip-hop compilation subtitled ‘Block party hip-hop from the New York underground’, and it’s mixed by my main men Sizzahands and Riz

(who?). There are some dope tracks involved like Bootman’s ‘To the Hip’, and DJ Rags’ ‘Yes, Yes, Y’all’, but that’s the problem. Every track sounds the same, a phat beat underlines repeated choruses that go something like, ‘He we go, yo,’ or ‘New York’s in the house,’ and so on. Frankly, it gets boring fast. I guess in the context'of an actual outdoor block party this could really rock the spot, but for home listening, don’t even go there..'. SALMONELLA DUB THC Winter (Curious) It’s been interesting listening to the progression of Christchurch-based Salmonella Dub. From psychedelic dub-rock, they’ve slowly incorporated more and more drum ’n’ bass into their sound, which culminates here in

a wicked EP of top notch remixes from David Harrow (Technova), and locals like Projector and Rotor. The Technova mix of ‘THC Winter’ is very cool, starting with classic squelchy, techno chords and rocking pulse beats, and then into a vocal break that has one of the lads exclaiming, ‘l’m a feeling a whole lot better, ’cause I got THC winter,’ it’s very charming and very kiwi. I’m not sure how it would go down in London, but as techno with a New Zealand bent, it’s awesome. The Projector vs. Rotor mix of ‘The Spaceships Unshaven’ is a cool mission into chilled, brooding drum ’n’ space, while David Harrow’s trance mix rocks the spot once again. Salmonella Dub are going places fast, and as our local dance artists start to come through with some real quality, these are the guys to look out for.

ANDY PICKERING