ok then, i'm going to try and explain why everything you said about the sci-clone tune was total bollocks...
1) to say straight off that the chords are wrong is so not to get it. the chords are perfect and that they're harmonically wrong is what drives the whole piece. it's a circular pattern and because the ear wants them to resolve – and they don't – creates a tension that takes the tune out of being mere lounge. this applies to every solo part too – they'd be twee if they resolved ... but they don't. blame uses the same trick with his circular non-resolving basslines; it means his music keeps firing while most other good looking stuff (of the past 5-6 years) is pretty banal. [i was going to mention 16th/17th century ground bass as well, but that's not really the same since there repetition is used to create structure rather than tension.]
2) to quibble about the production is again so not getting it. the feel they're aiming for is – not exactly improvised – more that of a band going into a cheap studio and laying it down in one take... ok, ready, let's do it. to compare it with j majik (because it's got a sax sample ) – where the production is everything (and amazing) – is totally meaningless. you tweak the sci-clone production and basically you blow it. it's like the senegalese stuff we were listening to earlier – recorded nicely in england it loses something essential.
3) to complain that it's not quite in tune – that's so irrelevant i hadn't even noticed. as with the production, you mess with this and you lose something. well actually, my sister – another musician (with perfect pitch) – would probably agree with you here, but some stuff i like more because it's not in tune – similar song-based material which almost always should be in tune i like because it isn't. such as... "any spare change" by jessica & martin simpson – jessica has an appalling voice, weak, thin, barely able to hold a note – and martin can only have done a record with her because she's his wife – but on this one track (which is about someone on the street begging for change) it works beautifully. or alison statton in young marble giants – that she's not always in tune gives the music (the rest being just bass + organ/guitar) a sweet naïvety. similarly tracey thorn's first album, a distant shore, which is as ropey as can be, works better because of that. record this stuff properly and you might as well throw it away.
4) to dismiss nathan haines' solo as rock sax, to say it's not real jazz – of course that's right, it's not jazz, it wasn't intended to be jazz. nor is it attempting to be dnb with jazzy flavas . it's more – for want of a precise genre – lounge rock. except that the harmonic tension and the fast dnb tempo keeps it from being late night radio 2 easy listening wallpaper music. instead it rolls on and on from one improbably pleasant tune to the next without losing momentum. [and to go "dah dah dah" on a dnb compilation of noisy stuff – i love that – in that context it's a great big happy smiley eat me to everyone else.]
5) the modulation in the middle is not a lame attempt to change mood. well ok, i'd agree that the modulation doesn't quite work, but it's alright because it soon remodulates – which was the point of the initial modulation: to change the harmonic pattern briefly before moving back, to prevent it becoming so familiar and acceptable to the ear that it loses its effect.
i can't think of anything else at present. except...
from kingsley's review of deadly chambers of sound:
"north london's finest notch up another album of the month, with their ten-year anniversary r sound celebrations culminating in a compilation of exclusives from the very best producers within the movement. the label's continuing philosophy is that of futurism, made clear through the steady mutations of hidden agenda's 'redress' and the seething atmospheres of 'neutrons' from colin lindo's alpha omega project. highlight of the album, however, comes from sci-clone who buck the trends again with the enjoyable switched tempo 'el son'."
) – where the production is everything (and amazing) – is totally meaningless. you tweak the sci-clone production and basically you blow it. it's like the senegalese stuff we were listening to earlier – recorded nicely in england it loses something essential.
to everyone else.]
