Viva Death in Vegas
Death in Vegas' last LP, Satan's Circus, on their newly formed label, Drone, was something of a departure from their previous two. An instrumental LP of abstruse, motoring, krautrock grooves, heavily influenced by the bands, Harmonia, Cluster and Kraftwerk, it had a obsessive tunnel vision quality about it, and a sense that they'd broken free from the rock star collaborations which made their name over the years. It wasn't particularly well received and was akin to a commercial suicide note, but as an example of a band striking out, following their instincts and moving into new territory it was exemplary.
Therefore now is as good a time as any to give their previous output for the Concrete label a going over. The first disc of this 2-CD splurge consists of material lifted from their first three LPs: Dead Elvis, The Contino Sessions and Scorpio Rising. The second is a collection of remixes picked up along the way.
The tracks from Dead Elvis hold up fairly well, and show there was more to "big beat" than Norman Cook's cartoon version. "Rekkit" still sounds like it was made in a dungeon by experimenting robotic sex slaves and "Dirt" still wears its title with pride. But it's the low slung dub crawl of "Rematerialized" (a re-rub of The Scientist's track "Dematerialize") that continues to impress most and it can more than hold its own against the imperial early dubbed out releases of Andrew Weatherall that so clearly influenced it.
"The Contino Sessions": "Aisha" still sounds ridiculous with Iggy Pop camping it up with grunts, howls and daft lyrics ("I'm a murderer", "Aisha, I'm vibrating!") over buzz saw guitars and jagged keyboard lines. Bobby Gillespie does his best impression of Bob Dylan reading from a William Burroughs novel on "Soul Auctioneer". Whilst "Dirge" sees Dot Allison exhale a pixilated croon that gets abused in sterling fashion by a plaintive guitar driven death march.
"Scorpio Rising" throws out a lackluster Paul Weller offering, "So you say you lost your baby", that attempts a 60's garage vibe but comes across sounding more like Herman and the Hermits. Also, "Hands around my throat" with Detroit Electro fetishists Adult, the hypnotising "Girls" and the title track with Liam Gallagher on vocals, which, if you like Oasis is great but if you don't it isn't.
Tracks off the remix CD include Electro heavy interpretations of "Hands around my throat" by Adult and UXB. The former succeed in making it even seedier than the original, the sound of a whip cracking a latexed arse seems to drive the track along, whilst the later takes the record firmly onto the dance floor. "One more time", which is musically proficient but has an intensely irritating Bobby Gillespie yelping things like "yeah, yeah, yeah!" and "do it!" over the top with all the style and timing of someone singing along to their walkman. And the reworking of "Rekkit" and "Neptune City" by Two Lone Swordsmen: two prime examples of twisted machine manipulation.
"Milk it" bears witness to the open minded spirit that pervades DIV's work and shows a band willing to experiment even if the end results don't always work out.
Few bands these days meld so many varying influences into their work, many tend to stay in the safe ghetto's they've created for themselves and, well, milk it for all its worth .DIV have the nous and ability to avoid this cul-de-sac of creative stagnation and long may it continue.