Biography
Gael Baillier and Camille Bazbaz are two lucky Parisians. As the duo's story goes, John Pugh, the drummer in !!!, happened to be in a Rough Trade record store in London one day, and decided to pick up Chok Rock's Big City Loser 3-track EP. Somehow, he was able to convince the guys back at Warp records that the French dup was worthy of a real US-release and backing from a major label. So maybe Baillier and Bazbaz aren't lucky … maybe Warp records just has a couple of screws lose.
But that isn't to say that re-releasing Big City Loser (now a 4-track EP in the US) was a bad idea. It was a very good idea indeed. This EP, short as it may be, is one of the best glitch-hop records that has popped up in the past years. It is equal parts robotic dance music and guitar-based funk. Obviously, the record is full or re-hashed material, but it is re-hashed in good taste. "Give It Up" is the robotic dance tune. Twitchy drum beats, a thick bass, and a warbled funky synth make the song all the more fun, even though it is relatively simple. For part of the song, the spastic guitar even recalls !!! "Buzz" is equally fun, but a has a more elastic feel to it. Like really smooth record scratching or something … there is a very laid-back aspect to the synths in this song. But Bazbaz's tense vocals yield a more rigged sound, making the funk effect that the song has over the listener all the more addictive. Then comes "Happy Man," a truly chilled out groove. The song is filled with glitchy-ness, but feels much slower than the other two songs. Like the drum is always just a little behind the singing. And because of this fatigued sense that the listener picks up on, "Happy Man" would have been a good way to wind the record down. But I guess three songs isn't enough. The duo take the EP down another notch with "Take a Plane," which has a blusey air to it. If "Happy Man" was what you would listen to right after you get up in an effort to transition into a busy day, "Take a Plane" is maybe what you would hear while sunbathing on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Real calm, but not much there unfortunately.
Chok Rock was a good call on Warp's part. The sounds have all been used and re-used, but this EP blends them all together perfectly. Nothing is overstated, nothing is understated. These guys have a handle on their sound. They know what they put in, and they know what came out. Perhaps adding a fourth track was an overall bad idea, but this should not be the factor that decides if the duo is good or bad as I am sure that Warp pressured them to lengthen their release. These guys have hit something, and they need to run with it!
Nik Mercer
June 15, 2005
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