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| sneaker pimps |
"BECOMING X" | V i r g i n trends being what they are these days, who can say what happened to the brief but brilliant light of the thing we called trip-hop a few years back? Likely it got fractured into so many Tricky side projects. But the record that started all the fuss and launched a thousand critical swoons was Portishead's "Dummy," and we've all been waiting with baited breath ever since for a definitive follow-up. There's no word from Portishead, but they couldn't hope to make a second record better than the Sneaker Pimps' debut, "Becoming X." While the trippy trio from Manchester, England, tampers with the same variety of generic styles (and there's no question they listened to "Dummy" perhaps a little too closely), they're different in one important way: They reconstruct rather than sample, and the result is a unique, cohesive piece of work. Still, the formula is true to the pomo brew: A preponderance of edgy, minor-key riffs and torch-song diversions are lifted from the speakeasy and processed with a low-tech aesthetic that couldn't have happened without the Ramones and the Pistols. Kelli Dayton is the kind of singer critics love to describe as a chanteuse, and the name fits. But she's a torch-singer with a slightly girlish, unpracticed edge consistent with the driving punk-rock underpinnings and the wicked lyrics of "Low Place Like Home" and "Tesko Suicide." On the other hand, there are some adult-contemporary contenders here too, like "6 Underground" and "Post-Modern Sleaze," sweetly naive trifles with guitarist Chris Corner plinking away on an acoustic six-string and keyboardist Liam Howe toodling on the synthesizer. "Waterbaby" and "Roll On" are towering epics of noise, while "Wasted Early Sunday Morning" recalls the Delta blues within a haunting electronic context. All in all, "Becoming X" is an ambitious and wide-ranging record filled to the brim with butt-shaking stomps and heart-breaking carols. The band's name, lifted from a Beastie Boys reference, doesn't fit the music at all, except to the extent that their fetching tunes mimic the power-walk beat of contemporary rap and hip-hop. The Pimps' true bloodlines lead back to ultra-cool avant punks like Au Pairs and Gang of Four. But there's something desperately new and exciting about "Becoming X" -- after all, this may be the next phase of trip-hop. The night is getting late, whatever we took that made us feel so good was laced with something wicked and someone invited the punkers back into the fray. There's only one thing left to do: Turn it up. Way up.
--Hans Eisenbeis Hans Eisenbeis is editor of Requestline. |
