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Urban Gamelan

Urban Gamelan

a review by Mike W. of
release format Urban Gamelan by 23 Skidoo (CD Album)

text

Few discussions of industrial music culture should occur without mention of 23 Skidoo. Formed around the same time as Cabaret Voltaire, the band catapulted a flaming globe of metallic Far Eastern percussion and sinuous funk against British charts and ripped right through them.

However, as far-reaching as its influence has been felt, its back catalogue has been out of print for years. The only people lucky enough to be splintered by 23 Skidoo have been aging hipsters and eBay lurkers. Until now, that is - the band is releasing its old material on its Ronin Records label. 'Urban Gamelan', originally released back in 1984, is one of the first brought back from limbo.

Many descriptions of 23 Skidoo's music give the impression that the band's drumming was awash in furious and wanton pummeling. Not so. For example, the only track on 'Urban Gamelan' that matches the fury of an early Test Dept. or Einstürzende Neubauten song is the spastic energy of 'Sirens', sounding like the interior of a firehouse on full alert. Most of 23 Skidoo's music is more suitable for traveling up the river into the heart of darkness rather than exploding into its core.

'Urban Gamelan' is all about suspicion and fear. 'Language Dub' falls like rain in a darkened city side street. Some drops roll off of roofs onto garbage can lids, resonating with a steady slap like Chinese water torture, while other drops hit at the whim of the weather, speeding up into a scramble on the pavement or slowing into a misty tapping on shards of broken window. And the single-minded, low-key pitter-patter of 'Helicopterz' could be the suggested musical representation of helicopter blades lazily slicing through the air or it might be footfalls scurrying away under camouflage from the threat of the oncoming gunships.

For some, having 23 Skidoo's catalogue back on the shelves is a journey of nostalgia, of remembering a time when you had to fight against popular radio and record stores infected with bands like Haircut 100 and ABC in order to find music that created a mental and physical rush. For others, listening to 'Urban Gamelan' and the band's other discs will finally give an understanding as to why the band has been sampled by the likes of The Chemical Brothers and considered so influential to the history and evolution of dance music.

Posted by Mike W. at 16:48, 23 Jan 2002