Dance music eh? I like it. I don't like sitting around listening to it. It's called dance music for a reason and that reason ain’t sitting around your flat while reading a book with it on in the background. Unless you’re on drugs of course.
Which is where Shaun comes in. Shaun’s invited a few pals up. Shaun’s my flatmate and he’s on a couple of pills. So are all his pals apart from Swifty who’s just drinking. Me? I’m out of my tits on painkillers and pale ale. This is my only chance to review this album in a state where I actually wanna hear dance music. Let’s get it on.
“That’s fucking eerie”. The first words anyone has said since the album started. Shaun mutters them about 20 seconds in and he’s summed it well enough.
After a load of shite talking about 80s movies Shaun cuts in again “This music’s amazing for getting out your nut. Takes about twenty minutes minutes to get going then it pure bursts in.” It actually takes two minutes twenty six seconds but it does “pure burst”.
Hendo’s our dealer and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s also the biggest Slayer fan in the West Coast of Scotland. He’s been homeless recently and got into dealing to support himself. He thinks the music is banging. He can’t actually sit still and the first track ain’t even finished.
This album doesn’t need a synth to get it’s horns, bass, strings and whatnot. All the instruments are played live. There are 12 members of Rairbirds according the CD cover playing clarinet, hammond organ, trumpet, congas and a few other choice instruments. The string pieces are courtesy of The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. By far and away the best Symphony Orchestra in Slovakia for my money.
We’re only on track two of eleven and I feel kinda ill. The pale ale’s went warm. But the music’s keeping me going. It’s touched almost every bass in dance music already. I’ve already heard my peers refer to parts sounding like Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada and fuck knows who else. Shaun’s impressed at the difference between the two tracks and I agree. It sounds like two completely different bands, more like a compilation than an album, but the differences between the acts doesn’t seem forced. The change is organic. The album’s beginning to sound like an evolution between genres but always clinging to it’s dance roots.
James Aitken started getting Jen at the same time Hendo got aff with Emma Rossi. He’s a smooth bastard but one of the loveliest boys in the world; The gossip’s flying at the same pace as the beats. I enjoy being a casual observer like some drug crazed anthropologist. The natives have accepted this punk into their fold to spy on their reactions and social circle during one of their most important cultural events: the getting out yer tits in yer mates flat listening to music festival held only two or three times a week. Sometimes in these groups I enjoy sitting back and letting other people talk, letting them bare their souls without realising, and watching. It’s like an nonsexual form of voyeurism. Tonight I have an excuse. No-one’s telling me to cheer up. They're letting me “work”.
Oh. Now I’m excited. This is the cover of
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) by Bob Dylan. Should be good. Both The Rairbirds and Bob Dylan are a little up their own arse. Both artists are allowed the right for being pretty damn good however. None of your Bono nonsense here. It’s a riff from the original, sped up, played on an electric, and looped. The vocals do have a nod to Mr. Dylan but owe more to any of The Chemical Brothers’ works with the brothers Gallagher. Just before the three minute mark the song almost manages to sound “folky”. It's fucking dance music and, like Birnam Wood going to Dunsinane, it’s done the impossible and moved into uncharted territory. The strings that follow it’s folk breakdown bring me up with them but it doesn’t last long. Give it a minute and it flows back in the breakbeats and bassline we’ve become accustomed to in this album.
It’s all over the place. Not only do no two tracks sound the same this eleven track album could be split into forty different tracks as each song flies around like some kinda blind budgie let loose in yer gran’s kitchen: hitting different things but continuing it’s effort to get to it’s final destination. So far it sounds like it’ll get there. I’m gonna roll a fag now so you ain’t gonna hear what I think of track five.
I've finished my fag half way through track six. Swifty thinks it’s lost it’s impetus now. The change in tempo put him off. He’s only drinking tho’ so no-one values his opinion. Track six,
Tigerag, is perhaps my favourite track thus far. It’s the first instrumental we’ve heard and it’s got some brilliant jazz trumpet shit goin’ on. Hendo’s trying to sing along with his own impression of a horn section and says it makes him want some shakey things. The state he’s in he’s shaking enough already. He thinks it reminds him of The Mavericks
Just Wanna Dance The Night Away. I don’t know if I mentioned Hendo was a fool but he’s fucking miles off.
Lisa Jean’s here now as well. She’s stone cold sober and I would value her opinion in this review but she’s only spoke to me twice in the last month and one was to call me a dick. I dunno why she’s fell out with me but I don’t really care either. I kinda like the fact being in the same room with her seems to make her uncomfortable. Swifty’s dropped an E as well by now and he’s beginning to feel it. The music’s clearly helping to bring him up.
Lisa Jean’s away now. Ha. She fucking hates me. She never said hello or goodbye. Ach well. More drugs/booze for the rest of us. I think Hendo’s away to fire in tho’.
Lo 2 Hi, track number nine, is quite indie based. It’s fast catching up with
Tigerag as my favourite track. Dare I say, it could easily fall into this New Rave craze I’ve been forced to put up with of late. I actually wanna skip it back now as
B Sum 1 is sounding kinda generic. It sounds like it wishes it was on the
Shaft soundtrack but not good enough for Shaft.
Everyone’s in agreement with the eclectic mix of the album. Some people like how it seems to take you one way then go a way you just don’t expect.
B Sum 1 still has a generic feel but it’s lost it’s 70s soul/funk input thanks to the vocals. The vocals in the album are so easy to compare to similar vocals on similar tracks: “this one sounds like that one and that one sounds like that one by that other band” and so forth but they don’t really. The production of the vocals gives each song a familiar feel without actually sounding anything like what you’ve heard before.
B Sum 1 has it’s vocals based in the early 90s rave scene but it sounds fuck all like it at the same time. I’m very impressed by it.
According to Swifty the last song is quite peaceful. We’ve started listening to him again because his pupils have finally got bigger. Reminds Neil of The Killers. Neil thinks the album’s amazing. Hendo thinks it’s decent but no Pantera. Swifty agrees and now Swifty ain’t talking to me because I don’t rate Dimebag Darrell.
“Do you know what? I want you to copy that for me Mick because it’s just about changed my life.” - Shaun
Well according to the bands press release they want to make dance music vital again. They’ve done it for Shaun. I don’t think it’s anywhere near vital but, fuck me, it’s impressive, it’s interesting and enjoyable.
Cast:
Mick:
laptop, Tramadol, pale ale
Hendo:
Ecstasy, Frosty Jacks, Merrydown
Neil:
Ecstasy, Strongbow
Jen:
Ecstasy, Paracetamol
Shaun:
Ecstasy, Merrydown from a dirty glass
Swifty:
Ecstasy, Strongbow
Lisa Jean:
sober, bad mood
Rairbirds 1 is availabe from August 27th on One Little Indian
Rairbirds Myspace
