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23 Skidoo, "Beyond Time"
23 Skidoo has had a significant portion of their previous work reissued over the past few years, but Beyond Time is their first album of new material in 15 years. A soundtrack to the documentary of the same name, exploring the life and art of 23 Skidoo core members Johnny and Alex Turnbull's father, William Turnbull, it stands strongly on its own as an atmospheric work that stays faithful to the band’s roots in funk, hip-hop, and unique post-industrial noise.
Because it is intended to accompany the documentary, the eight instrumental pieces on the album do not make any drastic jumps or shifts in dynamics, instead remaining a consistent experience.Opening piece "Dawning (Version)" stays in league with their latter day output:crackly vinyl, hip-hop loops, and a light organic electronic accompaniment.The band works with the same memorable drum loops on "Interzonal," but within a field of odd samples and heavily effected guitar.
The group uses drastically different rhythms on the misleadingly titled "Calypso," based heavily around a steel drum loop that becomes more of a melodic than percussive element.Rich synthesizers and bass fill out the remainder of the mix, and once the guitar and additional percussion are brought in, the piece sounds nothing like calypso music."Kendang" also has the band utilizing less conventional drums and percussion, with more of an ethnic touch.The jazz horns might be a bit too traditional for me, but the funk heavy guitar and keyboards work wonderfully.
A 23 Skidoo standard, gamelan percussion, appears on "Contemplation," and blended with additional bells the piece ends up taking a darker direction.While it still has the appropriate dynamics for a film score piece, the final passages are chaotic and dissonant, becoming just the right amount of uncomfortable and dissonant."AYU (Ambient)" is the only beatless piece here:with the artists blending vintage sounding analog electronics with tastefully jazzy guitar work, it results in a nice, peaceful piece fitting a film score, but also effective on its own.
For the album's final two pieces, 23 Skidoo reworks two of their older pieces.Both "Helicopterz" and "Urban Gamelan" remain faithful to their original incarnations, just with a slightly cleaner production sound and a bit more restraint befitting a film soundtrack.While I was unable to view the film that Beyond Time accompanies, the soundtrack portion stands on its own independent of the visuals.While the first 23 Skidoo recordings in a decade and a half might not be a mind blowing, revelation of their reappearance, it has the same idiosyncratic sound that has defined their career since its inception, and sits in excellently with their body of work.
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