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Synth-core, electro tech movement, futurism - call
it what you will, the near-do-well acid brothers, Dan
and Jon Kahuna's debut album, 'Machine Says Yes'
provides a stirring, startling likeness for magazines
like The Face and Sleazenation. Imagine
such things as a stomping, organic presence with real-time
attitude and outrageous volume - and you pretty much
have some kind of vision you can call Kahuna.
With vocal contributions from the likes of alt-country
singer Eileen Rose and Gus Gus member
Hafdis Huld as well as cameo's from the Super
Furry's Gruff Rhys and one-time Verve bassist,
Simon Jones it's not that difficult to imagine an unpredictable,
compelling ride. And to be fair, that's what you get.
Beginning their relationship as childhood neighbours
in Leeds, Dan and Jon Kahuna later went on to
DJ and design the infamous Big Kahuna club just
as the Chemical Brothers were doing the Social at Turnmills.
With a set and an approach rumoured to have inspired
the near outrageous Norman Cook 'Fatboy Slim' metamorphosis,
the boys went on to providing the big-beat Friday evening
'21st Century Bodyrockers' at the Cynthia's Robotic
Bar in London's SE1 and this is kind of where we meet
them - poised upon the brink of the most blissful 21st
Century comedown.
Now on the dance music industry's self-confessed 'label
du jour' City Rockers, along with Muzik Award
Winner, Felix Da Housecat, FC, Pete Tong, Seb Fontaine,
Rob Wakeman, Audiobullys, and Felix Da Housecat,
FC Kahuna provide a twisted, cosmic soundtrack to a
thousand and one nights of cyber madness. Bold, experimental,
uncompromising and in parts - testing, 'Machine Says
Yes' is Designers Republic meets King Kong
meets Akira meets Barbarella - with a
little of Dan Daring in between.
Recently preceded by the critically acclaimed singles
'Glitterball' and 'Hayling' these 'essential' new 'tunes'
(as many would have us call them) practically sum up
the thrust of the album: charged adrenaline rush giving
way to burning downtempo fever - with more ups and downs
than a night at a brothel – so to speak.
An acid house album by any other name, embracing everything
from the early Warp pioneers to Gary Numan and Basement
Jaxx, it's a record that is able to court both classic
majesty and discerning edge with sometimes implausible
skill.
Avoiding the overwrought house and pop-sensibilities
of the Chemical Brothers' recent disappointment
'Come With Us'' Machine Says Yes pushes the boundaries
of what could be considered 'accessible' but 'edgy'
dance and comes up with something quite difficult to
place. But it's this sense of displacement that makes
it successful - it's unselfconscious and unpretentious.
Opening track, 'Fear of Guitars' with it's oddly melodic
and spherical ambience - a veritable mist of swirling
gasses and cosmic fizzes - is a simultaneously pretty
and machine-like affair, evoking, as much of the album
does, a disorientating fractal trance. Something of
a mantra for the A.I romanticist or fantasist, the song’s
vocals are provided by Gruff Rhys of the Super Furrys
- and what a surprising and convincing enough start
it all is too.
Next up is chest thumping electro bass wake-up call,
'Glitterball' with its striding techno primitivism and
acid-house liabilities. Not a million miles away from
the funky-pop groove of New Order nor a million miles
away from old familiar chestnuts like Orbital.
Husky, delectable title track, 'Machine Says Yes' (with
Hafdis Huld - former Gus Gus - on vocals) deals the
squidgey, static hand of acid-funk whilst 'Nothing Is
Wrong' and 'Bleep Freak' could so easily be the sassy,
lethargic godchildren of the Jaxx's Rooty album. They're
sexy, they're funky and they're heeled up to the nines
like a couple of Dutch transvestites.
Hafdis Huld's beautiful, lulling if ingenuously timley
stab at the lounge-core lizardry of Air and Zero 7 -
is so tender and so chill, and so emphatically of the
moment that it positively drips with liquid nitrogen.
This is downtempo taking it easy: languid, surreal and
so very, very fresh.
'Machine Says Yes' is a little like loving the alien:
you never know what to expect - but for this you are
never disappointed.
FC Kahuna's 'MACHINE SAYS YES' is out now on CITY ROCKERS.
Alan Sargeant for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 04/02 1 Giant Leap - My Culture
04/02 Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures
04/02 Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen Heap
04/02 Gomez Interview - Ian Ball
04/02 Idlewild - Live - London Astoria
04/02 K's Choice Interview
04/02 Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall
04/02 Longwave Interview - Exit
04/02 Lucy Mongrel Interview
04/02 Oasis - The Hindu Times
04/02 Phantom Planet - Interview
04/02 Unwritten Law - Interview
04/02 VUE - Coordinates Interview
05/02 BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London
05/02 Breeders - Title K
05/02 FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes
05/02 Moco - Live - London Monarch
05/02 Need New Body - Interview
05/02 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause, Northampton
05/02 The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays
06/02 Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park
06/02 Frou Frou Coordinates Interview
06/02 Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger
06/02 North Mississippi Allstars - Interview
06/02 Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not
06/02 Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus
06/02 Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe
06/02 Reindeer section - You Are My Joy
06/02 Silverchair - Diorama
|  | 06/02 Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window
06/02 Soinc Youth - Interview
06/02 The Burn - The Smiling Face
06/02 The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton
06/02 The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham
06/02 The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill
06/02 Trik Turner - Interview
06/02 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton
07/02 12 Stones Interview
07/02 Arolo -Interview
07/02 Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour
07/02 Cassius - Interview
07/02 Farrah - Interview
07/02 Glassjaw - Interview
07/02 Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview
07/02 Hoobastank - Running Away
07/02 Leaves - Interview
07/02 LL Cool Jay Interview
07/02 Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London
07/02 Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch
07/02 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
07/02 Super Furry Animals - Interview
07/02 The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London
07/02 The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street London
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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