Are musicians who copy their favourite artists’ music and even put a pride in showing it the most detestable people of all? I think so. By some confused credible-by-association logic their parrot behavior is meant to earn them more "authenticity". And, of course, to make the average 47-year-old evening paper music journalist unload in his Jockey boxers over the hard-to-miss influence of "The Stones". Lazy, complacent fucks are what you are.
As soon as a musical style is re-discovered there are 2,000 boneheads lining up to parrot it. They’re not trying to take it to another level, they just want to reproduce something that was created by musicians with more stamina and originality. The copy clowns put the death mark on everything that once was exciting and new.
That’s why it’s not surprising that the re-born acid has entered the last stage of entropy. But there are brilliant exceptions from the acid clones that emerged the last months. Like Analog Fingerprints, one of many projects by Rome’s finest dj, Marco Passarani. On the recent 12" The Age of Hypocrisy (Final Frontier) Marco rocks hard, especially on the song "Re-format Yourself". It’s far from pure acid or italo disco, but The Age of Hypocrisy still has a little of both. But instead of merely plugging in a TB-303 that he bought on eBay two months ago, Passarani modulates his sounds when mixing it down. It makes it sound alive. I hate the word, but The Age of Hypocrisy has a dynamic, "jammy" feel to it. It’s pure Italian quality stuff.
What do you get if you let five kids from Chile with a serious inclination for Brazilian 60s death pop punks Os Mutantes and early Joy Division and hang out? You get the wild tropical space rock disco of Panico. I am still absorbed by their first 7" "Anfetaminado". It’s a story about walking the streets with an urge for amphetamine. It’s great news when Joakim at Tigersushi tells me that Panico is about to release their debut album in January next year. With Cristian Vogel and Joakim themselves taking care of the mixing. Before the album arrives there’s a new Panico 12", with remixes from Zongamin and Joakim's own project K.I.M.
I’ve also come across the most mind-blowing record of the year, Aimee Tallulah is Hypnotised (DC Recordings). It’s Andy Meecham's (of Big Two Hundred/Chicken Lips) debut album as Emperor Machine. Strange album title but Andy is in his full right to call it whatever he likes. With music this good, he could call it The Leprechauns are Hypnotized for all I care.
What does Emperor Machine sound like? The description of this album as "futuristic 70s analog synth disco" isn’t very helpful, but it might give you a hint of what’s going on. The record is full of John Carpenter-like, Prophet 5 arpeggios as well as the space disco of Cloud One. But it’s more to the point comparing Emperor Machine with Bruce Haack's lost, early electronic masterpiece Haackula (it got lost back in 1978 on the way from recording to release, and stays unreleased because of record label problems. I burned my copy from a friend’s who’d borrowed his from another friends and after that I lost the trace).
Oh, I almost forgot, Jake Fairley plays some strong dooms day shuffle tracks on his new album Touch Not The Cat (Dumb Unit/Kompakt). It’s nice when merging rock and dance music actually works.
MOLTAS ERIKSSON
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