REVIEW: Propellerheads, Decksanddrumsandrockandroll (Dreamworks)
- Tim Hulsizer
So what's the popular term for dance music this week? "Bigbeat" seems to be soup du jour, an amalgam of breakbeats and fat basslines that resembles a hybrid of drum'n'bass (only slower) and instrumental hiphop (only faster). It's cool and funky, and easy to shake one's booty to, but unfortunately its acceptance into the mainstream hit machine has resulted in a blizzard of pointless and masturbatory releases. These include full-lengths that should have been EPs (Fatboy Slim, David Holmes, etc.) and blatant attempts at cashing in on the trend in the form of awful compilations (including the TVT disc with the offensively bad title Big Rock'n Beats).
On the flipside of the coin is the duo of Alex Gifford and David Arnold, two gentlemen whose EP releases under the moniker Propellerheads have never disappointed in three years. Finally we are blessed with the full-length release and it is mighty fine. Relentlessly funky and endlessly inventive, these guys have managed to find their niche in a genre that is fully stocked with fakes, uninspired ripoffs, and elevator music.
I like this album for a variety of reasons, which of course include the beats themselves. Gifford and Arnold are masters at unleashing a monster groove and effortlessly sustaining it. They have a knack for finding the dirty side of a beat and twisting it until it screams funky. Not only that, they use a bass sound that I can only describe as scratchy. Not so much distorted as stretched, the Propellerheads basslines are simultaneously rough and smooth (no small feat, that). They ooze into your ear like a grinning lover, sexy as hell but with a knowing wink. The album is full of swaggering tunes that never take themselves too seriously.
Propellerheads also pick some excellent samples. From old movies (the perennial standby in dance music) to old rap tunes, these guys pay homage to a variety of sources in the best possible manner. My personal favorite sampling is a short track called "A Number of Microphones", in which we hear a human beatbox doing his thing while a British gentleman talks about the placement of microphones and intones phrases like, "How extraordinary!" You can say that again.
Elsewhere on the album Gifford, Arnold, and a few friends of theirs pay homage to other influences. Acknowledging the hip pleasures of the secret agent/1960's phenomenon, they include brass-filled lurkers like "Cominagetcha" and "Spybreak". Not only that, they bring out Miss Shirley "Goldfinger" Bassey to belt out "History Repeating", and they present their own version of the theme from the 007 movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The latter track is an ambitiously-produced 9 minute, 20 second song that includes guitar, horns and organ.
In fact, this track is also on another album David Arnold produced, the recent James Bond remix project entitled Shaken and Stirred. Arnold was also responsible for the soundtrack to the latest Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, further proving his love for the spy game. Propellerheads have other ways of exploring dance music, including guest vocals on a couple tracks by De La Soul and Jungle Brothers. It's a tribute to their inventive arranging that the tracks work so well.
Decksanddrumsandrockandroll is an ass-shaking tour de force. It never entirely breaks the mold of modern dance music, but neither is it a slave to what has come before. It's a well-conceived, brilliantly-executed party disc that should please the hardcore fans of the genre while defining it all for the casual listener as well. This release ranks among the best in the "big beat" category and it sets the standard by which all others must be measured.
