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8 September 2003 Text only BBC Homepage | Latest » Album of the week: Arvo Pärt; Mercury Prize profiles |
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|  | Various Artists, Ballroom Blitz (Deathsucker) ...revels in its hyperactive attention deficit disorder approach... Read the review | Send us your comments or read other people's
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within BBCi music:
Various Artists - It's Fan Dabi Dozi People Like Us - Recyclopaedia Britannica Wevie Stonder - Drawing On Other People's Heads
Experimental Homepage Experimental Reviews Experimental Reviews A-Z Experimental TV/Radio Experimental Profiles Experimental Webguide Quick Guide to Experimental All Music Reviews A-Z
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Deathsucker records site
Various Artists Ballroom Blitz (Deathsucker)
Heres a pop quiz for you. What do you get if you... Add one part Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" to two parts mash-up stylee a la Osymyso or Freelance Hellraiser, a dash of pounding gabba from Bloody Fist, then bake with the junglist breakcore of DJ Soundmurderer and serve with a side of cut and paste pop destruction shenanigans of V/Vm? The answer it seems - is Bristol's very own Deathsucker records. This twenty three track compilation serves as a good introduction to the label's overall philosophy of musical deconstruction and general abuse (not to mention their back catalogue). Jungle, breakcore, gabba, techno, dancehall and even the odd TV show are sampled, edited, processed, de-constructed and then spit out, ripped apart at the seams and left to fester in the hot sun. Ballroom Blitz revels in its hyperactive attention deficit disorder approach to sound and pulls it all off nicely. Although some of these hyperkinetics can take away from the overall feel of the album (it is after all - a glorified mess), some tracks do manage to settle down a bit to lock into a particularly interesting feel. Take Mochipet's "Take 6" for example, which blends some of the more dissonant moments of Kid 606, Hrvatski and Lexanculpt into cut and paste drill and bass. Bong Ra's "Archie Bunker Disciples" takes The Prodigy' s "Firestarter" by the scruff of the neck and feeds it into several hundred distortion pedals. The highlight would have to be Sickboy's hilarious re-working of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", here lovingly retitled "Bohemian Crapsody". The song has been sampled, ground through a musical coffee mill and then set on fire in the middle of a gabba rave where old school jungle happens to bleed in from time to time. From the first 30 seconds onward, it seems clear that fans of the late Freddie Mercury will certainly not be amused. I've always loved the synergy between the anarchist two fingers to the establishment ideology of punk rock and the total rip it, shred it, destroy it, burn it ideology of the left wing electronic avant garde. Deathsucker sit firmly in-between, gleefully destroying everything in their path but also not taking it so seriously that the joke is left behind. Ballroom Blitz serves as a great way to bring out that thinking man's anti-establishment loving hyperactive 16 year old that resides within all of us. Reviewer: Olli Siebelt Like This? Try These: Various Artists - It's Fan Dabi Dozi People Like Us - Recyclopaedia Britannica Wevie Stonder - Drawing On Other People's Heads
Read other people's comments then Tell us what you think:
I've seen Parasite live here in Bristol, and he rocks. This album really is the Future Sound of the Music. Good to see the beeb plugging breakcore!! Jake, Bristol I attended the Death$ucker gig at the Black Swan in Bristol the other week and it was a great night; there's something about this music that makes artists and fans alike really friendly. I've got Ballroom Blitz and it's a great CD. Rob, Bristol
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