|
Back in August on a dismally gray Saturday afternoon
in a pathetically populated field in Leeds, former big-beat
anti-heroes the Lo Fi Allstars were beginning to look
like they'd been burning the candle both ends for way
too long, leaving themselves with little more than a
damp match and a thinning pile of wax to fiddle with.
They were still playing like it was 2am eternally, but
sat on a grassy bank chewing overpriced festival Pot
Noodle & trying to shift a rapidly gestating hangover,
squinting at the stage they looked like no more than
last night's dance tent leftovers still going, fuelled
by bad chemicals and snakebite. In retrospect putting
them on the mammoth main stage in daylight was akin
to Aphex Twin hiring himself out for kids parties and
weddings in full silicone enhanced 'Windowlicker' drag,
only patently less dramatic. Like an ugly fish out of
water there maybe, but crow-barred into a trendy, rammed
railway arch in East London they're back blowing bubbles
and flapping their awkwardly shaped fins again like
they could still become dance music's Oasis any day
now.
The Wrecked Train is of course long gone (I mean, the
Wrecked who?) and with a rotating front-goon, alternating
between bassist The One Man Crowd Called Gentile (aka
Andrew Dickinson in his usual crusty camouflage clobber)
and DJ grease monkey the Albino Priest (aka Phil Ward),
they have more than enough gurning underdog, rock icon
wannabe blood in the veins to go around. You do have
to wonder what they think they see when they look in
the mirror though. Obviously being a fair few degrees
off bona fide rock star status the vocoder is a bit
of a lifeline and on tunes like last autumn's comeback-of-sorts
single 'The All, The All' and teetering, pulsating highlight
amongst highlights 'Disco Machine Gun' they do what
over recent years has seemed nigh on impossible. That
is to make the vocoder a viable, dangerous sounding
and almost inventive option once again.
But how to survive in the harsher reality of the post
Skint Records explosion, without Bentley to better,
and at least without Christopher Walken to glamorize
your videos and win you awards? The Lo Fi battle plan
seems to just be to put their heads down, hit the accelerator
and wait for the g-force to kick in. Throbbing new single
'Lo Fi's In Ibiza', tacky title aside, is a uber-potent
suckerpunch diluting all they've covered before (the
solid beats, the arching spine-rippling intestine-churning
synth bass hooks and an ever-rising atmosphere) and
downing it straight with a chaser. And as if to prove
that they can do it all, or maybe to show that if worst
comes to worst they could actually take wedding bookings,
another new song joins chill out staple 'Blisters On
My Brain' for a mid set epic cabaret style chill-out
that very nearly has Crud reaching for its lighter.
And if you're still looking for proof, one word - 'Battleflag',
still the most incredible headfuck. Not at all seeming
like late 90s Brighton retro-fair, they're grabbing
beats and jumping right on top of 'em. Now, if they'd
just pull their fingers out with that album.
James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2001 
|
