Nouveau Sound System Culture

I've been meaning to write about Gold Chains' Young Miss America album for most of this week. I sat down over the weekend and made some impressionistic notes that I intended to shape together into a "proper" review, but the week has been busy and the weekend promises to be busier. Also, mentally I'm already moving on to a review of the Annie Lennox album; if I leave half-written posts for longer than a few days they go stale and I never feel like finishing them. Attention span of a gnat, that's me. (Gold Chains? So last week.)

Therefore... this is lazy and self-indulgent of me, but I'm going to post the notes instead. Yes, you're getting a rare glimpse of the Hg creative process. This is raw brainstuff, unspiced, unseasoned and, in fact, pretty much unwritten. Make of it what you will. Alternatively, you could just ignore this half-baked loafing around and click on over to this funky flash-based promo site as a good introduction. Then when you're done, check Mr GC's site itself, which has samples of every single track on the album.

The notey stuff starts below, dahlings. Just in case you can't tell the difference.

Music - hip hop, UK garage, dancehall, old-school electro, new-school electroclash, techno, glam rock, swamp blues, insane bhangra/tango hybrid of Nada (with timestretched vocals). Meaty, big and bouncy.

Beastie Boys, Salt 'n' Pepa, mid-period Prodigy, Princess Superstar's (or maybe Peaches’) testosterone-fuelled male alter-ego, Hammond organ licks from The Doors’ Light My Fire, Basement Jaxx’s eclectic lunacy (except there’s no doubting where his head’s at), Talking Heads’ wobbly vibe, early Moloko's squelchy funk, Consolidated’s in-your-face politics, The Streets with less anxiety and more passion (and a broken voice). Nevertheless, he’s unique. I’ve lived with this album for a few weeks and I’m starting to be able to dissect it, but for the first week or two it sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before.

Begins with a statement of intent: “We’re calling Code Red on society”

The melodies have the nagging, insistent quality of advertising jingles, impossible to get out of your head once they’re in. They sound simple and repetitive in the car or while making dinner, but plonk yourself down in front of a pair of speakers and listen to what’s going on, you soon realize that there is depth and complexity. Tracks are immaculate structures, building convincingly.

There is plenty of sex on this CD. Unpretty, lusty, even sleazy sex. However, the habitual misogyny of many hip hop records is thankfully absent. Sex is almost always portrayed as a physical expression of love, however crude the language used to describe it. "Who needs a bitch when you got a lover, evolving together from winter to summer? Cold to hot, warm to warmer, heartbeat to heartbeat, we sip absinthe in the sauna," he muses at one point.

“And you thought that you had such a nice university education, well welcome to the first rule of Western civilization: make money, make money, make… make money, make money, make… make money, make money, make… make money, make money, make…”

“… it’s a fucked situation when money is the fuel that moves the engine of your nation.”

“... but you know I like it when we do it slow, I so enjoyed the smooth connection, eye to eye, heart to heart, hips to hips and body parts, inventing several new languages of emotion, where lips touch the lips, composing symphonies of motion”

Nada – consumerism, “What is life when there’s no one to love you, even if you can afford to wrap that Cali ass in Prada?”

Revolution – social change and the spinning of a twelve-inch disc.

“Young Miss America, you know I miss you, every time I see your painting I want to kiss you, I know that pain and I know that sorrow, if you need another heart here’s mine to borrow…” crooned tenderly.

Break Or Be Broken – a lighter-waving anthem?

“Transforming dance floors into porno sets” – euphoria. Club culture, dancefloors, music, “punk rock MC”, sound systems, “Blowjobs after dark in the microphone booth.”

One of my favourite sonic moments is the end of the final track when the phrase “What’s going on tonight?” morphs effortlessly into “Let’s get it on tonight!” with a pumping techno beat in the background.

The voice reminds me of Leonard Cohen after a rough night, of Captain Beefheart with a sore throat.

"Now get your clothes on, grab your records and let's jet
I need you to DJ for another belting set
You know the MO in this situation
Fifty turntables on fire, complete devastation
In support of a nation that's based on the elation
Achieved through the fine art of rhythmic manipulation"

Posted by Hg on Friday 20 June 2003 at 07:21.
Received 1 comments so far.

Never heard of Gold Chains. Now, I'm probably gonna get the disc. I'm particularly drawn to the description, "Meaty, big and bouncy."

Comment by Muraii on Friday 20 June 2003 at 19:36.

http://www.hydragenic.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hydragen/mt/mt-tb.cgi/957

The previous post was Microthought.

The next post is Homogenous.

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