| Midfield General -
Generalisation |
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 This
album has been in the works as long as Skint records has been on the
go (almost 5 years). Its surprising it actually got made because
apart from being a pretty much full time DJ, Damien Harris is the
boss of Skint and has had to look after Norman Cook, Bentley Rhythm
Ace and many of their much lesser contemporaries (eg Lo-fi Allstars)
over the years. With this in mind I had low expectations but when I
put it on (loud is a good idea here) I was more than pleasantly
surprised.
It kicks off well with "Keeping it Real", a slow nasty
break-beat type tune with various people mumbling stuff before
getting to the first track proper, "Devil in Sports
Casual". This track is so old apparently it was a prototype for
all that Big Beat stuff and features somebody preaching about the
evils of rock and roll over more bassline nastiness. This definitely
gets your attention and was my standout track on first listen but
now I reckon its "Reach Out", the next track. It features
a ‘Praise You’ style woman (except with a much cooler voice)
singing over a class wee keyboard riff, definitely the summer No.1
that never was. From hereon in the General shows his experience as a
DJ and moves through every style of dance music that’s any good
with drum'n'bass ("Stigs Inn Love"), house ("General
of the Midfield") and even some Mike'n'Rich style comedy muzak
("Drunk Country"). Unfortunately its not all good with the
track "Midfielding" being the bit of flab of this album.
If it were three minutes and instrumental it’d be fine (a kinda
Jake Slazenger affair) but its five and a half minutes of the same
thing with the "comic" ramblings of Noel Fielding (a
stand-up comidian born from the Gas mould who obviously watched
Harry Hill and thought how great it would be to bring audiences into
"his world".Even has "trademark" big collared
shirts……hmm). Quite what this irritating cocksucker is doing on
this album is beyond me, unless he pulled the General from a burning
car wreck and he consequently "owed him big time". Maybe.
The track is like a tumour on this otherwise healthy album but with
the handy employment of your skip button its proven to be benign
(ho-ho). One out and out turd-like track isnt bad going, I mean you
cant say that about any Beatles albums can you?
Overall, a surprisingly good listen. I was expecting a bit more flab
but its pretty tight all the way.The Skint motto is "genre
thrashing" and its clear now that nobody does that better than
the Big Cheese himself. Well worth a listen but if you don’t like
it forget eveything you just read.
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Rating: 7½ - 8 out of
10
Reviewed by Stephen Shatner
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