This album celebrates it’s fifteenth anniversary this year. Which prompts a question: What is the significance of the release? It’s not the twentieth, or the twenty-fifth. Fifteen is the Michael Gove of numbers. For those who don’t have it, or weren’t alive at the time (I bought it the day it came out – in Woolworths), here’s a brief description of what it’s like:
It’s basically the album Norman Cook wanted to make for a long time. It has both the hedonism of Ibiza and the exuberance of a man falling in love, while using an Atari ST – a beautifully designed (but even then archaic) piece of kit. It’s got the funky drawl of Macy Gray, the twangy bass of Bootsy Collins. At the time it was everywhere. Hell, even Christopher Walken was dancing. It proved that a man short of hairline and deft of wrist could rule the world.
The extra disc contains remixes; these are by and large disappointing. More unimaginatively, they are in the main done by the people whom were around at the time. So, we have The Chemical Brothers (The Wayne And Garth of bigbeat) doing what they did then. The others are basically the generic kind of music that was all the rage fifteen years ago: timestretches, rinsing out, four to the floor. It’s an ersatz recreation of what was in vogue in the late 20th/early 21st century. The DNA of what made the album so ace in the first place is twisted into a slightly different waveform.
The one track that actually works is Autograf’s rework of ‘Mad Flava’. It turns something simple into something entirely different: the theme for an island staffed by Brazilian sex robots. But let’s return to my original point: why is this album re-released now? Possibly, as EDM is currently massive in America. This would also explain why the “fuck” in ‘Star 69’ is distorted.
If you don’t have this album, this is an excellent addition to your rack. Otherwise, scroll along. Not so much Wildean, as a waste of your time.
Halfway Between The Gutter And The Star (Deluxe Edition) is released on June 1st via Skint Records/BMG Chrysalis.
Kev McCready
@KevMcCready
