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A weekly slice of pedigree Pop, guaranteed to send a herd of bison thundering through your underpants at a rate of knots:
KRIS MENACE & SPOOKY: stereophonic [compuphonic]
listen: http://hypem.com
www.krismenace.com
www.spooky.uk.com

Three years ago, I wrote enthusiastically about a slow-burning, nine minute opus called ‘Discopolis’.  It originally appeared in 2005 by Kris Menace (Christophe Hoeffel), this time in partnership with Lifelike (Laurent Heinrich). It’s a great, synth-heavy affair, capable of making you wonder if Jan Hammer was really onto something.

‘Stereophonic’ is on Monsieur Menace’s label, Compuphonic, which has so far only released his own tracks, including collaborations with Felix Da Housecat (‘Artificial’) and Fred Falke (‘Fairlight’). I have misty memories of Spooky as nearly men from the ’90s, but knowing Hoeffel’s previous, ‘Stereophonic’ immediately piqued my interest. And, it’s cracking. That said, it’s by no means original and, like ‘Discopolis’ before, perhaps this is evidence of Menace’s talents as a musical magpie.

To be fair, the track is self-consciously retrospective, announcing itself with the spoken word introduction, “for my next number, I’d like to return to the classics”. The rather reflective organ which follows could come from any decade during the last fifty years, but reminds me most of Giorgio Moroder’s ‘Tears’. That seems fitting, as ‘Tears’ was sampled by another skilled larcenist, DJ Shadow, on his track, ‘Organ Donor’.

A minute in and the production introduces more electronic components, which could have been borrowed from Orbital, perhaps ‘Lush 3-1’ on their sophomore ‘Brown’ album. And, when the beats drop, I’m again taken back to the early ’90s and the drums from something like Josh Wink’s ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’. None of this, however, is problematic; there is an undoubted artistry in taking the finest elements from music’s heritage and conjuring some fresh, new alchemy.

Kris Menace’s new single, ‘Scaler’, is out now on Compuphonic.