REVIEW: Junkie XL, Saturday Teenage Kick (Roadrunner)
- Lang whitaker
If the term "crossover" doesn't sound like a viable music genre to you, then you've obviously never listened to Tom Holkenborg's latest project, Junkie XL.
"For me, crossover has always been the ultimate musical direction," says Holkenborg. "Bands don't usually blend Rock and Electronica well...what I try is to blend the guitars and dance elements into something new so they don't lose their original strengths."
And blend he does, like Isaac behind the bar on the Promenade Deck. The best way to describe the sound of Junkie XL is to think of Prodigy minus the psuedo-punk posturing and multiple piercings. Dance floor beats thump underneath crunching guitars and pulsating sine waves. On top of it all, rappers Rude Boy (Urban Dance Squad) and Dino Cazares (Fear Factory) tag team on a stream of consciousness about pride, underacheivers, and even billy clubs.
"Metrolike", with a lyrical flow reminiscient of U2's "Numb", eventually decomposes into a sea of beeps and pops. It is immediately followed by the funky, fuzzy guitar and clean drums of "X-panding Limits". "War"'s first shots are a totally dissected drum loop that explodes into a Roni Size-d trip-hop fury. The title track is a rollicking blast fueled by Mountian Dew and nicotine, an ode to pre-pubescent weekends spent chasing tail.
There are plenty of other people out there trying to do what Junkie XL does. The difference between those posers and these players? Junkie XL does it well. Really well. There are no let downs on the CD, save for the 18-minute long "Future in Computer Hell", for which a more apt title might be "Present in Computer Hell". From the first few seconds of the album, beats flow forth like sexual harassment allegations against Bill Clinton. It's easy to see how one could become a junkie listening to addictive music like this.
