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Australian producer invades Chicago house

“HOUSE MUSIC,” Kikumoto Allstars (International Deejay Gigolo)

Chicago acid house music isn’t as aggressive as other sub-genres of electronica, but it’s subversively compelling.

Australian DJ/producer Cam Farrar, who adopts the name Kikumoto Allstars in deference to electronics pioneer Tadao Kikumoto, faithfully exploits the Chicago-house milieu on his new, to-the-point “House Music.”

If a sect needs music for indoctrination, this is it.

“House Music” mesmerizes through shameless redundancy. The 12 tracks average more than 6 minutes in length, and each has a steady and persuasive rhythm that gains momentum with the constant addition of nuance (clanging beat, clapping, jolting noises, etc.). The reverb is typically heavy, and once listeners are pulled in, they’re buried under and numbed so that they’re incapable of escape.

The aural chloroform is surprisingly simple and retro. Track-to-track distinction comes by way of modified flutters and hums of Farrar’s machinery.

An irregular cadence pattern and an over-stuffed blur of a break set apart “DCO” as a more playful track, while “Bending Time” picks up a cosmic atmosphere with confluences of sound akin to liftoffs and spacey pulses and beeps filling in the voids in between. Although the stimulus isn’t constant — the familiar resonance of the aptly title “Just a Feelin” doesn’t lead anywhere, for example — there are a few hard-hitting moments that push the limits of house music, as when a menacing bit of mind control emerges in the harshly repeated refrain of “Jack the House.”

Vocals are generally incidental on “House Music,” and lyrics are mostly inconsequential. However, Ferrar appears to tip his hand on the stirring “Still Can’t Stop the House,” where a robotic-sounding female vocalist (Fi B Haven) deadpans, “I pledge allegiance to the house sound/It’s the only one that will always be around.”

This is cult music for sure.

Rating (five possible): 3-1/2

‘Field Trip’ entices parents to tag along

“FIELD TRIP,” Recess Monkey (Monkey Mama)

Of all the sacrifices parents of young children make — their time, their money, their sleep — one of the most humbling concessions is giving up adult music. After all, this is a time for “SpongeBob SquarePants,” not Eminem.

But Recess Monkey offers the ideal compromise: real music for kids that adults can not only tolerate, but actually enjoy.

The prolific Seattle-based trio of schoolteachers Drew Holloway, Jack Forman and Daron Henry produce something akin to what the Beatles might have conjured if they made music for children, or at least if Paul McCartney were the dominant member and not always on target.

Despite its silly themes, revealed by song titles such as “Bubble Factory” and “Centipede Pirate,” Recess Monkey’s new “Field Trip” is a serious excursion into genuine music rather than just an indulgence in dopey jingles.

Refrains on the jaunty “Fort,” Devo-like “Hot Chocolate” and catchy “Marshmallow Farm” could infect listeners of all ages until their eyes are spinning like pinwheels. And the group matches its sharp musicianship with crisp humor, whether it celebrates an octopus who tells corny knock-knock jokes on the spirited, pub-song-sounding “Knoctopus” or twists in a turn on Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” on the cute “Haven’t Got a Pet Yet.”

Less kinetic cuts have their moments, too — a Velcro solo on “New Shoes,” a boy’s choir on “Sack Lunch,” a trumpet on “Ice Pack.” And the band doesn’t merely monkey around: The trio delivers moral support to mortified kids on “L.I.C.E.” and comforting warmth on ambient closer “Firefly Lullaby.”

“Field Trip” is good enough that some parents might listen to it without their children around.

No kidding.

Rating: 3-1/2

Cuba’s Revolution proves unrevealing

“REVOLUTION,” Revolution (Rapster)

Revolution seeks to prove that the music scene in Castro’s Cuba isn’t entirely shut off from the rest of the world.

The group of current and former Cuban musicians, plus assorted non-Cuban producers, do make that point, though the new “Revolution” is hardly revolutionary. This Cuban collective is one that listens to Miami radio stations and replicates what it hears without particular innovation, although there is a Latin swing to the sound, presented by way of percussion and horns.

Producer Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) — who hasn’t been relevant for about a decade — ushers through the rote and lumbering rap cut “Shelter” and serviceable electronic-kissed “Siente Mi Ritmo.” And the team of Cameron McVey and Stan Kybert likewise adds little excitement to the addled “You Wouldn’t Want To Be Me” and sluggish R&B/rock merger “Black Dollar.”

Fortunately, Guy Sigsworth surfaces to ignite rapid-fire lyrics with hastened rhythms on the dance track “Crazy Love” and adds flickering warmth to the pop arrangement of “Cuba Boom.” Also, Poet Name Life stirs up “14Me” with rolling percussion, horns, chants and raps, and the producer pits surreal harmonic vocals against the galloping rhythm of “Dark House Love.”

However, it’s producer Marius De Vries who steers album highlight “Guantanamero,” an epic and sweeping journey that’s both fluid and frenetic and packed with hybridized organic/electronic drama.

By contrast is Rich File and his wildly out-of-place “Lies” and “In Time,” a pair of ponderous shoe-gazing cuts that have modest cinematic appeal, though they’re wholly incongruous with the rest of the collection. And that’s the problem with “Revolution” overall: There are so many participants and so little continuity that nothing makes a lasting impression.

Rating: 3

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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