Koop - Sons of Koop (Colombe D'Or)

Koop will be a new name to most, unless you shop in the Swedish version of the Co-op, from where they take their name. But there are couple of other people who can fill you in on how cool they are. Acid jazz geniuses UFO (United Future Organisation) name-checked the band recently and fellow Swedish fruitcake Stina Nordenstam directed the video for their debut single, 'Glomd'. 'Glomd' has received some well-deserved hype thanks to this and the small-but-perfectly-formed heritage of the Colombe D'Or label. Highly addictive, this track is also praiseworthy for sampling Claude Debussey and mixing 'Prelude A L'Apres-Midi D'un Faune' with dance beats well in advance of Art of Noise's much-heralded (although so far unheard) Debussy-sampling comeback.

The way this album mixes sampled classical string padding and jazz jungle fun makes it sound like the product of a lifetime's - rather than anything shorter - work. Koop have created their own style which varies from classical interludes to 'Army Of Me'-style up-front Bjork-esque meanderings on 'Plasm'. Given the Scandinavian influences, you can expect to hear further Bjork references levelled at the band, but it should be pointed out that tracks on Sons of Koop like 'Bjarne Riis' make 'Hyperballad' sound entirely outdated.

Koop are definitely a new delicacy that needs to be sampled. 9/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine

Various - Cocktail (Recordings of Substance)

This is the first compilation from the drill & bass-oriented Recordings of Substance label (what appears to be an off-shoot of Hydrogen Dukebox). Here you'll find twelve quite varied tracks, some of which are vital 1998 listening although others are best avoided. Magnetic offer a prime example of how this high-speed beats style of drum & bass works in practice. But this serves as merely a warm-up for the awesome random assault of Icarus' 'Moon Palace'. This one merges split-second kitsch theme snippets with wobbling sub-bass anthems. It's also worth pointing out that Icarus are planning a tour of building sites. I hope this isn't just PR smoke as this is actually quite a cool idea!

Elsewhere, the T Power Mix of 'Theo Steps In' by James Hardway will play very strange tricks with your head, thanks to some wicked stereo phasing synth effects (which sound awesome on headphones and would be equally brilliant through a sound system). The James Hardway sound may be new (and somewhat trendy) but it certainly needs some refining. His jazz jungle 'Illustrated Man' is fine but his remix of Omnivore's 'Spandex' goes nowhere fast. Nostramus are the other main stand-out act on Recordings of Substance. 'Babel (Hoax Mix)' is right up my street: atmospheric and driving, make that pounding, at the same time. Even madder is their other track, the appropriately titled 'Let's Fuck It Up'.

Final thought: I hope there's a vinyl version of this album out there as most of this is very DJ-friendly. Check the Witchman Mix of 'Earth Light' by Nostramus and you should hear what I mean. 6/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine

Bang On A Can - Music for Airports (Point Music)

It's about time something like this happened. In the absence of any reissues or reassessments of past glories from the man himself, Bang On A Can have taken it upon themselves to produce an entirely new interpretation/homage of Brian Eno's Music For Airports. If you haven't heard of Music For Airports, it's hardly surprising. This gem of an LP basically kicked off the entire ambient music genre but has been laid to rest in dusty seventies progressive rock sections of second hand record shops for almost twenty years.

But BOAC have brought things right up to date with a complete re-recording of the original album with just one major change. All the synthesiser loops and effects have been sidelined in favour of cover versions using only acoustic instruments! That's cello, bass, piano, percussion, guitar and clarinet, fact fans, which brings to mind the other ambient masters of the acoustic stream, Channel Light Vessel.

To tackle covering an LP like Music For Airports, with all it's intricacies, atmosphere's and themes isn't daring, it's bordering on madness. But the results are staggeringly true to the original, so full marks to the four arrangers who all transcribed every movement of the original, each adding their own particular mood. And the beauty of a reinterpretation using 'real' instruments is that this LP can now be performed live - like at the recent premier staged at - where else? - Stansted Airport. 7/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine

Family of God - Family of God (Ochre)

Any private pressing that's described as intriguingly as "mystic disco" by the New York Times is definitely worth a listen in my book. Now that their debut LP gets a proper release on Ochre, I can try my own descriptions. 1) If The Doors had been lead by Beck, not Jim Morrison, tracks like the album's opener 'Goodnight Piccadilly' might have been released thirty years before Family of God had the idea. Or 2) Family of God sound just as if The Eels were an English sixties beat group.

Cool as these ideas are, there's no escaping the other key element on this LP: cheese, pure and unadulterated. When it works ('Moog Over Easy') it's easy to see why this duo have stormed New York clubs like the Elbow Room and the Luna Lounge. When it doesn't ('Moog River' and 'Teenage Beach Musical'), it's easy to see why the cheese craze in the UK transformed (fizzled out?!) so quickly. But with more serious tracks like 'Sabrina' it's easy to see why Family of God have become the darlings of both the NY club and gig scenes. I'll be stunned if this one doesn't turn up on the soundtrack to some US thriller movie in the very near future. Another wicked track is Black And White Universe, the sort of music we'd hear more of if just half the UK big beat artists could write lyrics. Then there's 'Babble' and 'Nirvana' the sort of tracks that only nuts in New York could record.

A strange, completely random double album which - dodgy religious connotations aside - is worth checking out for the two sublime tracks tucked away amongst 20-or-so others. 4/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine