Propellerheads

Here's my impression of a Propellerheads review:

"James Bond, Propellerheads, James Bond, Shirley Bassey, James Bond, funk, James Bond, Bath, James Bond, James Bond."

Now here's MY review:

The dynamic duo from Bath, England, Alex Gifford and Will White, took their name, which is California slang for a computer nerd, from a conversation with one of their friends. As Gifford explains: "A mate of ours, a Canadian, used it in conversation once and it just went clang! He told us what it meant, but that didn't really matter. The meaning may apply to us, but it was the sound of it we liked."

Cartainly there's nothing nerdy about them. In fact, mass media connoiseurs in Britain and the U.S. have dubbed Alex and Will the funkiest maestros to hit music stores. And far be it from ME to say otherwise.

For Alex and Will, it's much more about hip-hop than anything else. Old skool beats and funked-up grooves have long been cornerstones of their sound, but with "decksanddrumsandrockandroll", their debut U.S. album (released March 24, 1998), they went directly to the source: The disc features brand-new collaborations with none other than the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul.

"Groups like De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers, who've been around almost from the beginning, have always had this outward looking attitude," says Alex. "What they do isn't confrontational. It's a much broader expression, more lyrical, more human, and more humorous." Will adds: 'Their attitude has always been to experiment, to not be closed-minded about trying new styles. I think that's why they wanted to work with us. Even though what we do isn't hip-hop, they could hear we had the funk and they knew they could rhyme with it."

"Working with them just blew us away - they were so keen and enthusiastic and open. We were hoping the JBs would go for this fast track because they'd done up-tempo stuff before. When I played it for Afrika, his eyes really lit up. Then we had this chorus idea: 'When you had it, you didn't want it. Now ya ain't got it, so you want it back.' And he came up with a rhyme about a guy trying to make out to his mates that he's dumped this girl, but it's really obvious that she dumped him. It was a bit mad - here are these English honkies delivering lyric ideas to Afrika from the Jungle Brothers! But he was right into it."

Of the result Will says, "The tracks are phat. The whole experience was wild. Thinking back to when I bought [the Jungle Brothers' 1988 album] 'Straight Out the Juncile', and then having these guys on our record. They shaped my musical childhood!"

Will and Alex, both veteran musicians, met in Bath where they were DJ'ing at local clubs. Will says, "The music scene in Bath is pretty small; people just tend to know each other. When I met Alex, he gave me a tape of the stuff he'd been working on. I put it on in my car, and as soon as I heard it, it was like, 'Fuck - this is the bollocks!' It just sounded really fresh."

Now, a quick tour of the album:

The first song is "Take California" which invariably makes you nod your head as the beat tugs you along. A friend of mine, upon hearing the first 5 seconds, exclaimed "Listen to those beats! My God, listen to those beats!", which pretty much sums up the entire album.

Then the shallow repetitive rantings of concert groupies in "Velvet Pants" saunters in and you find yourself singing "he's got a nice body, he's wearing velvet pants." along with a sultry female voice. The lyrics from this song come from an Alan Lorber documentary titled "Groupies". Good luck finding it anywhere.

Somewhere in the middle, a generic 50's audio instructor says "And now let's hear the sound of correct microphone bassing" and you're subjected to the most wonderful and skillful beatboxing along with a few scratches and samples mixed in to create a few seconds of pure heaven.

The album finishes with The Jungle Brothers on "You Want It Back", a dizzying, trippy rap that forced one of my friends to exclaim "Dude! This song's seriously fuckin' with my head. This would be so freaky if I were high!" The only truly disappointing song on the album is the much hyped "History Repeating" and it may be BECAUSE it recieved so much hype. Shirley Bassey is Shirley Bassy, don't get me wrong. And "Goldfinger" is a wonderful song, but in this case, and it may not even be her vocals, but it just doesn't work. The beat is quite tastey, though.

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Compiled from an iMusic review and a review I wrote for the CommuniquŽ