| #640 |
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2003 |
Perilous 640 There’s been a bit of running theme over the last few columns that pop music, especially the so-called ‘urban’ genres, have been responsible for the more interesting sounds of late. So it is exciting to hear new material from Sydney producer Rekindle. Rekindle has been doing stuff for years usually with sound engineer Richard Austen– in the mid 90s as Raised By Wolves making moody instrumental hip hop and being involved in the Spooky Tricks parties. Later as Rekindle he started making drum & bass some of which ended up on compilations including one of the Freaky Loops comps. The best of these tracks were rinsing machine funk workouts with heavy drums but a sheen that separated them from much of the overseas produced techstep of the time. A few years ago Rekindle relocated to London, having been unsuccessful in attracting local labels to his music which was always on the move and unwilling to be confined by genre distinctions. Immediately prior to his move to the UK his music had started to add processed vocals and was beginning to have more in common with the mid 80s electronic funk of Cameo and Prince than drum & bass. Skipping forward to the present and Rekindle has been signed to Trevor “Playgroup” Jackson’s Output label and has a debut 7” single out this month called Ice Skating Girl, with an album possibly to follow. Ice Skating Girl shows how much Rekindle’s music has developed overseas, and it is a high gloss pop song that, more than anything, reminds me of Justin Timberlake’s Neptunes produced Like I Love You. Elements of his drum & bass past echo remotely in the beats similar to the way you can hear those same influences in Timberland productions, but the old Rekindle is elsewhere far gone. Digitally processed almost falsetto vocals carry the simple love song – the delicious “ice skating girl, you got my caught up in your winter world” - and there’s the obligatory mc section that emerges late in the tune that makes this a perfect piece of urban pop. Now whether Output can deliver a suitably colour saturated widescreen video clip to match remains to be seen. Back in the US, New York rapper Mike Ladd has been busy parodying the bling-bling obsessions of urban “artists” with his latest instalment of his Infesticons vs Majesticons trilogy. Last we heard, the Infesticons were struggling in a battle for the control of hip hop with the robot army of Majesticons. It was an epic struggle between ‘real hip hop’ and the capitalist, corporate, slick, ‘jiggy rap’ – a more than slightly problematic opposition. Now in part two, The Majesticons strike back with the Beauty Party album – a collection of ‘party’ rhymes which of course mean every track has to carry the ‘party’ name. Lacking only marginally in the sheen of real urban rap, Mike Ladd pulls off a hilarious and biting critique of the whole ‘urban’ sound, so close at times that it a lot of people will be turned off by the closeness of the sound to the “real thing”. Actually, The Majesticons is a much better concept album than The Infesticons was and for those interested in urban pop but at the same time uneasy with the ideologies carried by such music, its worth checking. Having seen 8 Mile recently (where the record company makes a movie to reinforce the authenticity of their star artist in the face of critical failings and fan unrest), the American myth of self-made pioneers involved in individual struggles against adversity needs constant questioning. Its never that simple but we are all, including the historically dispossessed and socially marginalised, are being pushed such ideologies in increasingly seductive ways. “If you believe/work hard/struggle you can be anything” . . . . except you can’t. Ladd’s reality check is a step in the right direction and if Big Dada are serious about what he is trying to do they’ll fund equally seductive video clips and promotion. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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