!!! - louden up now
having read a lot of words on this new york collective, which we all now know is pronounced chk-chk-chk, i was fearful of actually hearing the results.
well i am very glad i didn't follow through on those fears, as despite being hailed by the press as the ultimate nyc post punk disco funk band i have to say, and for any regular reader (haha!) you will realise how little i do this, but,
this album is fucking excellent.
in fact, having spun this album solidly over the last week i have noticed that my language has steered very much into the naughty arena a lot more. and i blame this album. while the grooves are bass heavy, rhythmic monsters lasting over 9 minutes, in some cases, the lack of lyrical dexterity causes some to be concerned - with a lot of the chants/vocal outpourings being little more than aural displays of bad language. well, i care not. this ain't bob dylan. this is nile rodgers style funk with a large slice of post punk attutude. and damn it does exactly that, the results sound fantastic, the production is clear and large incorporating some wonderful detail in the mix.
while most of the media will name check the standards that !!! have lifted from (gang of four, acr, etc) the one past master that i hear a lot of in the mix is sheffields finest chakk. especially their swansong 12" release 'ticking timebomb', when !!! combine their big fat bass lines and vocals with a cutup honking phased sax this connection to this past lost classic becomes all to clear. again do i care? do i fu(n)ck.
its wonderful to hear dance music being created by so called proper instruments, as opposed to the usual machine driven music that passes through the record decks of djs these days.
get down to the shops quickly and grab the double cd set for more spine moving richness with maurice fulton remixes and the old school named "serious bonus beats mix" of 'when the going gets tough, the tough get karazee'.