Regardless of age, you would have heard or listened to an artist influenced by the Bomb the Bass sound. Back in the mish/mash of the late 80s Tim Simenon dropped the cut n’paste classic Beat Dis closely followed by the excellent ground breaking Enter The Dragon album.
If you are expecting another rehash of hiphop fused with crazy samples, this album will be a shock, that’s DJ Yoda’s game in 2008. If Enter the Dragon was your thing in the early 90s, its likely you, like Bomb the Bass, have moved on. Electronic music changes fast, from the likes of Massive Attack, Leftfield to the darker Unkle all injecting more feeling and a greater range of emotions in to their programming and delivery, this could be the next meaningful step forward solidifying a more tense, deep sound to the dance music genre.
The first cut off the album is “Smog“, instantly haunting, a nervous tone sets the vibe, Paul Conboy provides vocals and works himself in to the abyss of Simenons dark, despairing musical backdrop. “Butterfingers” keeps the dark, claustrophobic unease with Fujiya and Miyagis’ David Best eerily whispering through lyrics about playing Tetris on his eyelids, which somehow feels fitting to the soundscape. There are no shortage of nods back to his previous years either with a few Adamski style beeps and echoes now lurking as scars from his previous battles in the studio.
All the vocalists on Simenons latest creation are male, and include grunge journeyman Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees/QOTSA) oddly appearing on “Black River” which is marginally more organic and human than the clean beats that are present right through the album. Paul Conboy from APE pops up again to laces a few more tunes, including “So Special” which is the lead single from the album. Jon Spencer, (yes from The Blues Explosion) appears to finish the album off with the murky, very urgent Manga/Akira style beat on “Fuzz Box“.
This album is certainly a taste of the future, but will fit right in, and trump the current crop of bands such as MGMT and the other acts/producers that have salvaged their mini-moogs from the attic. The thing that sets this album apart is the greater levels of depth applied to the simplest of beats, Future Kaos is built on possibly one of the most solid musical foundations of the last 20 years. Delaying the album release for the last couple of years has only served to let peoples music tastes evolve enough to be ready for this album, as Simenon is undoubtedly light years ahead of most in the studio and with this release will leave many playing catchup all over again like it was ’88.
Philip Procter