Groove Terminator - Road Kill

MINE

More Big Beat!  And this time I'd say it's good - but not great.  There are similarities to the sounds of Fatboy Slim and Prodigy, and given the release date of 2000, I'm thinking more than a little of the jumping-on-a-bandwagon sound.

It makes me yearn for my Prodigy Presents: CD (that came home as a case with no CD inside from some party or other) but I'm quite happy to show this album the door.  I only really like Here Comes Another One and One More Time anyway.

Side note: I like One More Time because it features the chorus to Let The Sunshine In from the musical Hair.  I was part of the chorus for that musical in an amateur production in Canberra when I was 19, along with one or two other people who may read this blog from time to time...

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

YOURZ

Road Kill from Groove Terminator came out some time after Fatboy Slim's mega-seller, You've Come A Long Way, Baby.  For all intents and purposes, GT could be looked at as the antipodean version of Norman 'Fatboy' Cook except Simon 'Groove Terminator' Lewicki hasn't had the huge success, hits or continued career that Norman has.

As I've said before, I'm partial to Big Beat but most of this, really, should probably be correctly called 'Mediocre Beat', because it's cliched and an obvious cash in on the popularity of the Big Beat sound at the time.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.gtworld.com.au/

This Is Big Beat

MINE

When I discovered the kind of dance music I loved had a name, I was impressed.  And went out immediately and bought this compilation.  Which has its moments, but still isn't really the definitive distillation of the best of Big Beat.

There are some great songs on it - including the Prodigy's Poison and Magic Carpet Ride by Mighty Dub Katz.  A lot of the tracks are instrumentals and while Howie B's Switch is an excellent example of this, many get a bit boring after a while.

But I have fun just listening to the ones I love and skipping along when I get bored.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Sometimes, the distance between Mine and YourZ (truly) seems positively universal.  And sometimes our nearness seems microscopic.  I see this as one of the benefits of social dichotomies such as ours.  We're very individual but meet up at the most surprising junctures too.

I think our collective love (if two can be a collective) of Big Beat is more of a surprise to Mine because I'm not much of a dancer, at least not these days (the reasons are many and varied but not worth going into here).  In fact, my love of this music has more to do with its structure and production than anything else as I'm a frustrated drummer from way back.

This Is Big Beat moves through the genre playing some absolutely killer beats.  While generally it's an excellent collection of brilliant tunes, like Mine says, skipping over the few boring ones is an absolute necessity.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_beat

Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry

YOURZ

Ah, there's just no mistaking the sound.  I think I could recognise a Fatboy Slim song in 30 seconds.  I might not be able to tell you the name of the song but really, when it comes down to it, who cares?  He's the ultimate Big Beat musician/composer/producer and also the last of one of the great party kings.

His music has inspired many late nights cavorting with mind-altering substances while dancing around like I just don't care.  And I seriously didn't.  The best thing about Fatboy Slim is he brings out the best at any party and the essence of a great party is its carefree-ness. 

Unfortunately, my love of Norman's work starts with and pretty much ends with the followup album to this - You've Come A Long Way, Baby.  In fact, apart from a few cursory listens prior to having to review Better Living Through Chemistry, I've pretty much ignored this album.  It certainly has Fatboy Slim's trademark big beat sound but it also lacks the inclusion of hooky vocals.  He obviously learnt his lesson for the next one.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

MINE

Stormin' Norman!  My relationship with Mr Cook goes right back to his time with The Housemartins (loved Caravan of Love) and then to Beats International.  I only have an EP of theirs, which features a great dub version of Madonna's Crazy For You.

But of course it's his work as Fatboy Slim that's garnered him the most acclaim and I am a firm fan.  This album, however, isn't what I'd call the pinnacle of his career.  Largely instrumental, I'm fond of Michael Jackson and Going Out Of My Head, but the rest of it isn't as good.  He really came into his own with the next two albums, You've Come A Long Way, Baby and Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars.

I've seen him DJ once, at The Dome in Sydney's Moore Park.  My friend Sharon and I went on a very hot summer night, where Sydney did one of its famous 10 minute tropical cloudbursts so it was sticky, too.  The DJs who were the support acts were frankly pretty dreary, but it was worth the wait for him.  I recall it was so hot, condensation was dripping off the roof onto the dancers.  A great night.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN the next two albums are better

For more information: http://fatboyslim.net/

In our collection, we also have: You've Come A Long Way, Baby and Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars

Resin Dogs - Grand Theft Audio

YOURZ

Brisbane hip hop collective, Resin Dogs, released Grand Theft Audio in 2000 but if you listen to this mix of beats, live instrumentation, scratches and samples, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a big beat release, as the dance influence throughout the record is obvious and, in fact, won the band an Australian Dance Music award.

To me, these guys represent what hip hop is truly about.  There's none of the poseuring or posturing often associated with the genre.  Instead, there are some really well produced tracks that combine great use of samples and live instrumentation.  The cross-section of samples from jazz to lesser-known hip hop artists also show a depth and broad-based musicology.  Not only this, but the band pulls it off live, with extended jams and an energy and live dynamic that is hard to ignore.

The other thing about Grand Theft Audio is most of the tracks are instrumental-based, often only relying on sampled vocals to carry the hooks.  Unburdened, as such, makes for some interesting, although limited-tricked, arrangements and production.  However, this small criticism aside, it is a great high energy record that isn't pretending to be anything else and would bring life to even the dullest of parties.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

Hip-hop collective?  This is Big Beat!  And I'm speaking as a woman who has a Big Beat 3 CD collection.  This is a CD simply crying out for a party to go to, one where the guests break off from conversations to take a trip around the dance floor, pulled there by the infectious rhythms pumped out by the Dogs.

Grand Theft Audio should have a place in any collection that has any respect at all for dance music  because that's what it encourages you to do, in the best of all hip-swinging, foot-tapping, hands-in-the-air type ways.  I think I got to see them at a Big Day Out one time, but my memory could be failing me.  (YourZ sez: nah, I was there and we were dancing in the bleachers)  That happens.  Or so they tell me.  Whoever "they" are.  Usually the ones telling me I can't do whatever it is I want to do right now.

Which is to put this on and have a party.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.resindogs.com.au/

In our collection we also have Hi Fidelity Dirt and More

The Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust

MINE

Ech, the debut album?  Not Surrender?  Sometimes the pointy stick is so cruel.  Exit Planet Dust is OK, but doesn't have the oh-so-fine tunes the Chems came out with later in their career.  I've seen them live a few times, at festivals and on their own, and I have to say Tom and Ed never fail to put on a great show.  With or without, er, enhancement.

It's weird to think that this album came out 15 years ago.  I spent a lot of time before and after then dancing my ass off in clubs to music of this ilk - and going to see artists like the Chems, Fatboy Slim, Paul Oakenfold and others whip dancefloors into a frenzy.  It was a simpler time... when I often wouldn't really sleep from breakfast time on Friday to late Sunday afternoon.  I'm healthier now, because I don't smoke any more, but I'm reasonably certain I was fitter then, as I could dance for six to eight hours with only short breaks.

OK, this isn't reviewing the album.  Only for completists, not as good as Dig Your Own Hole or Surrender.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

YOURZ

Well this is interesting.  Here's me expecting Mine to wax about this album, being as it is a Big Beat classic and the album that introduced the world to The Chemical Brothers.  But she doesn't like it so much.  Man, there's just no predicting her (which is cool by me because I love surprises).  Of all the 'dance' genres, the one I can stand to listen to with any regularity is Big Beat, mainly because it has some great, erm, big beats.  And The Chemical Brothers are one of the best, without a doubt.

I've seen The Chems a number of times now, mostly at festivals.  But the one time I saw them at a headline show, I was straight and sober.  It didn't make any difference to the show.  It was spectacularly massive, with a huge surround sound setup (imagine their huge sounds booming around over head and you get a small idea of it) and a light show unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Less reliant on vocals and more on beats, Exit Planet Dust established the duo as a force to be reckoned with both in their own country and around the world and included the Big Beat classics Chemical Beats and Song To The Siren (which sampled This Mortal Coil's song of the same name) as well as Alive Alone (featuring vocals by Beth Orton) and Life Is Sweet (featuring vocals by Tim Burgess from The Charlatans). 

This is the start of it all.  And the rest, as they (historians, I'm thinking) say, is history.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com/

In our collection we also have Surrender and Come With Us