If It's Good Enough for Sheila E.....

This album, being the culmination of a year of playing live shows together, was the duo's first attempt at making songs that have a start and a finish. Until lacing this one up, they were perfecting their trademark dovetail live track making, as showcased in the KYOKU CHORI album. Recorded at FUSION CAFÉ in two beautiful days during the Christmas holidays, "we set to work quietly, just playing off beats and synths against each other, until we found a groove, then pressed record and let rip for about 8 minutes per track". The result was something a little more hard edged and dramatic than previous works, but still as varied and unpredictable as ever. The eerie hip-hop of SLIT THROAT and the classic Drum & Bass of CLOWNING providing the hardness, and the nuveau jazz/rock of ESUNIK FU and FILTH JAZZ, providing the drama. SLIT THROAT is a rough and tough, industrial Hip-Hop beat with Porl rocking the drums and bass reverbs, and Pat providing some seriously unnerving bass keys and what can only be described and cat wailing guilotine effects. It doesn't stop there though, as Porl breaks down the drum track using some fairly outragous tape loop effects, and Pat getting busy with his right hand (so to speak) to provide some squidge. A typically risky and in your face opener from these two sound art freaks. Having been a lover of drum&bass since the early ninetees, Porl was pleasantly shocked to find out that in a previous life (in Canada) Pat had seen Ronnie Size live. Pat being a genius with a photographic musical memory, he was able to remember the nuance and feelings he exprienced in that show, and despite never having listened to any other music within the genre, fifteen years later managed to utterly blow up this track with hoover noises galore. Glorious indulgence again. Then ESUNIK FU and FILTH JAZZ, which to our mind are so origional that we can't define them in words, whether they're jazz, rock, trip-hop or just plain musicianship take our word for it, they're good. Elsewhere they had their eyes on the dance floor with tracks like the bass heavy CLOWNING, the punchy beats and grainy synths of JOYFUL and the catchy horn driven festival of enjoyment on POP TART. CLOWNING was based on a beat concept Porl had a few years ago, of looping up a 3:4 120bpm beat wacking a cracking great snare through it and delaying the kick drum with a descending pitch echo, then sub bassing those sounds to make it really fill the room. Hearing the drum intro, it's hard to imagine that Pat could dream up such a joyous and uplifting keyboard line to set it all off. His ability to feel and judge the atmosphere, then decide what the track needs to provide it with balance is unparalleled in our circles and on this track it shines through. The back to mine posse will be happy with ODDESSEY, with it's klorophonic rythmns and bit crunched, old school, D.I.Y. feel. Perfect for chilling out after the club, or getting spacey around midnight. Then there's the bonus track DUB SAK recorded live at Kagoshima's 'Cave'. This one starts off with a snippet of a live version of PIPE HITTA and continues in to one of Porl's kick snare specials then morphs in to a classically beautiful Dub Reggae track with Pat playing doubled up piano's with the right hand and luscious basslines with the left. Porl comes in with the Rhodes synths, and we're sure you'll agree that even though this one was totally off the cuff with no editing, they couldn't have written it better. Their timing and transitions are a marvel to behold, and this one shows them at their live and proud best. All in all, this one went totally to plan. No retakes, minimal editing and an album we really enjoyed being part of, from two blokes and their myriad of sound noodling toys. See if you can guess who did what. Pat D: Lots of synths, things with knobs and a mac. Porl B: Beat making hardware. Production and digital mastering by Porl B. Analogue mixdown by Hiroshi Matsumoto. Fuelled by Ebisu premium.