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"Let's Lazertag Sometime"
The title of this new Tigerbeat 6 sampler doubles as a good pick-up line to use at the next DragonCon. It features 20 tracks drawn from the current stable of TB6 talent; familiar faces like Kid606 and Knifehandchop rubbing shoulders with up-and-comers such as Drop the Lime, Phon.O and Eats Tapes. I'm happy to report that the TB6 bratty punk-tronica aesthetic is in full, frenetic effect.
Quintron and Miss Pussycat bounce back from the double bitch-slap of Katrina and Rita with "Swamp Buggy Badass," all snarling rockabilly swagger and deep-fried Southern decadence filtered through sleazy techno throb. Play this track side-to-side with Alan Vega's "Jukebox Baby" and tell me which one you like better. It might be too close to call. Suddenly and unceremoniously, the mix travels from the bayou to the teeming metropolis of Berlin, soundtracked by Phon.O's throwaway bit of bottom-heavy crunk-tech "Dumpsta Railin'," fun but unsubstantive. Of course, if you came here looking for substance, you were barking up the wrong tree in any case. The same goes for Kid606's "Let It Rock" from last year's Pretty Girls Make Raves, a study in glittering superficialities, a kaleidescope of club-friendly big-ups and shoutouts rolled into one big, hyperactive beat-propelled mess. G.D. Luxxe injects some robot funk into the mix with "Gift," a hard-edged technopop tune that rocks, like, pretty hard.
A few acts on this comp attempt to problematize the usual association of TB6 with bedroom electronica and trashy techno, bands like Clipd Beaks, Genders and Boy From Brazil who bring the rock, complete with real instruments and everything. Clipd Beaks seem really promising with "Nuclear Arab," an acid-damaged wall of urgent noise-rock that locates audible signifiers of protest and political resistance in the same ballpark as This Heat and early Section 25. I saw Genders open for Adult. last year, and was underwhelmed, but their track here ("Apes") is actually pretty neato, atmospheric psych-pop hidden behind layers of murky reverb and obscured by willfully perverse mixing strategies. Boy From Brazil's "Pocket Rocket Queen" steals a page from Quintron's book, a snotty, sexually confrontational electro-rock paean to the vibrator, delivered with a heavy dose of rockabilly attitude, as well as the liberal use of that late-50s Gene Vincent vocal echo. Kid606's other contribution to the comp, credited to "Kid606 and Friends," is a full-on rock song as well, with what sounds like live drums and guitars. "We Need to Make a Change" is both a political rallying cry and a party anthem, with an infectious bassline and a singalong chorus. Who are these "friends" exactly?
As is expected, this sampler also contains a full complement of instantly disposable chunks of ironic nonsense. I'm thinking here of Hawnay Troof's "Man On My Back," which is an angry call-and-response rap delivered a cappella over weird chugging sounds, followed by 25 seconds of silence (a mastering error?). It's pointless, but maybe that's the point. "Claws Theme (Edit)" by C.L.A.W.S. is dumb and damned proud of it, and that's got to count for something. Original Hamster manages to combine the agitating repetition of Reggaeton with early-90s diva-house, tying it all together with chopped up vocal samples and squishy acid squiggles, and it somehow works. Knifehandchop chimes in with an exaggerated wet dream of deconstructed, chopped and screwed robotripped hiphop that reimagines the scene in extrapolated dystopian form. It's crunk as hell, but also fucking terrifying.
Eats Tapes samples the "Uh -huh" from Soft Pink Truth's dionysian cover of Nervous Gender's "Confession" (also known as "Jesus was a cocksucking Jew from Galilee") to create a bouyant party jam that gradually snowballs into an dizzying cut-up techno piece that made me queasy with its frenetic invention. Indian Jewelry's "Emptyhanded" persists on the noisier end of mannered garage rock, and for no reason that is immediately apparent to me, is one of my favorite tracks on the comp. Drop the Lime's "Butterscotch" sounds like a less repellant version of Gold Chains: fat synth lines, bassy throbs and testosterone-amped vocal refrains. It's far too short, but it's lovely while it's there. Filler tracks by dDamage, Warbler and Puzzleweasel hardly warrant mention; it just wouldn't be a Tigerbeat sampler without a few head-scratching moments of sarcastically shitty, spastic, post-IDM Nintendo-esque trash.
Rest assured that Tigerbeat 6 is keeping it real: real electic, weird and fun.
samples:
- Quintron and Miss Pussycat - Swamp Buggy Badass
- Eats Tapes vs. Soft Pink Truth - Uh Huh
- The Genders - Apes
