Currently listening to DJ Rupture vs. Mutamassik - Shotgun Wedding Vol. 1: The Bidoun Sessions, a split CD of two live sets of the respective artists in their respective styles, with some mash-uppy stuff. You should probably track down track 10, Rupture's "Sickboy - Worst Trade Central \ Tom - Cure version" which is absolutely fantastic. Stupid fantastic. Starts off with a Bush clip and more are scattered through, but what's done with it is by far better than anything else I've heard using this technique. Certainly part of this can be attributed to the skill and pacing with which he uses them, selectively and rarely. But it's the music that carries the message much more interestingly and ambivalently (and without a lot of the sort of sophomoric humor that you usually find in Bush cut-ups) than a simple plundering of the phonics. The first section is all pounding breakbeats, and in its combination of volume, intensity, and precision, not to mention its differentiation from the sort of washy hardcore you might expect to be used to express rage, it conveys a palpable, empathetic sense of anger and frustration. But then as the tracks transition (after an "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" breakdown--I swear!), the music becomes first and briefly a sarcastic commentary on the quotes, but then, against all odds, a party. It's dancey and swingy and upbeat, and it transitions those modes--anger and joy--so quickly and so smoothly that it's exactly what I want right now. In part I think this transition is achieved because of the giddiness that's always been a part of breakbeats, just as much as some of its practicioners (or, more accurately, interpreters) might want to make it pure, dour, straightedgy anger. But here both meanings are let through, and as the breakbeats continue over the lopey, Caribbean vibe of "Cure version," it fits in perfectly, and it becomes a sort of half-time section, where the feel changes with the beat remaining mostly the same. It's a great track.
posted by Mike B. at 7:01 PM 0 comments