The Perlich Post: Carl Craig

Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Dirtbombs take on techno

Garage guru Mick Collins has always had broad musical interests which sometimes show up in his intriguing cover choices. But the guitar-slinging founder of The Gories, The Blacktops, The Screws, King Sound Quartet, The Voltaire Brothers and The Dirtbombs has never before attempted anything quite so subversively bold as Party Store (In The Red) – a concept album reworking classic Detroit techno and electro joints in a garage-rock style.

What might initially appear to be a ridiculously wrongheaded notion or a nutty pisstake, The Dirtbombs' Party Store is actually an inspired follow-up to 2001's Ultraglide In Black album. Only instead of updating their favourite 60s and 70s soul and R&B tunes from the Motor City and beyond as they did a decade ago, Collins and crew are now blasting through D-town's post-industrial buzz of the 80s and early 90s. It all works brilliantly. The funky melodic electro-minimalism of Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig – a perfectly cold and bleak soundtrack for a decaying urban metropolis – turns out to be surprisingly well suited to the brutally de-tuned 'n' distorted bashing favoured by the Dirtbombs.
They approach the material with just the right balance of respect and irreverence so it never seems like they're trying on an ill-fitting suit for size. And Collins clearly knows his shit judging by Party Store's exceptionally well-chosen repertoire which includes a selection of global dancefloor destroyers such as Inner City's Good Life, Rhythim Is Rhythim's Strings Of Life and Innerzone Orchestra's Bug In The Bassbin (featuring a cool cameo by composer Carl Craig) as well as a couple of cult curios like the sought-after 1981 b-boy banger Sharevari by A Number Of Names, Cybotron's Alleys Of Your Mind and the DJ Rolando jam Jaguar 1.
Even though the synthesizer use on the album is limited to selective whirring, gurgles and blurps, the Dirtbombs may very well alienate a certain blinkered portion of their garage-loving fanbase with Party Store. However, the bold move will likely make up for any losses with loads of new converts from around the world delighted by the Dirtbombs' boisterously rough-cut update of Detroit's future past. If the club crowd catches on, the album could be the Dirtbombs biggest seller ever. Adventurous DJs and vinyl junkies will be pleased to know that the 9-track Party Store disc is also available as a 3 LP package with a free download coupon currently selling for the price of a single LP.
Can't wait to hear what the Dirtbombs do with the music of J. Dilla, Moodymann, Black Milk and the Underground Resistance collective in 2021.

Sharevari by The Dirtbombs

Sharevari by A Number Of Names on "The Scene" 1982

Friday, April 30, 2010

Christian Prommer's master class

For the follow-up to the Christian Prommer's surprisingly great Drumlesson Vol.1 (Sonar Kollektiv) on which electronic dancefloor classics like Derrick May's Strings Of Life and Kraftwerk's Trans Europa Express were cleverly re-imagined as acoustic jazz joints, the rhythm obsessed member of Fauna Flash and the Trüby Trio wasn't interested in merely repeating the single take live recording concept with a different track selection. The solution: go more German!

Preposterous you say? Well, however unlikely that may seem, Prommer has managed to significantly Kraut things up for Drumlesson Zwei (!K7 Records) by employing some 70s vintage keyboard gear of the sort favoured by such influential artists of the period as Can, Faust, Neu! and Cluster.
He's still using an improvisational live band approach to revising electronic classics and club killers – everything from Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene and Laurent Garnier's Acid Eiffel to Carl Craig's Sandstorms and DJ Rolando's Underground Resistance anthem Knights of the Jaguar – only there's the added enhancement of mini-moog and old-school analog synth tweakery.
Once again it works beautifully, thanks in no small part to Prommer's stellar cast of creative musicians Robert Di Gioia, Ernst Ströer, Christian Diner and Matteo Scrimali along with longtime pal Peter Kruder who co-produced the recording.

Christian Prommer discusses Drumlesson Vol. 1