ROBOTS & ELECTRONIC BRAINS

Various, Deconstructing Beck (illegalart) CD

Something of a mixed bag, this one. Consisting entirely of Beck samples, delivered to your door in a plain white envelope and featuring no information whatsoever on the disc itself, this is the epitome of facelessness. The only glimpse we get of any personality is the gleeful way in which Mr Hansen's recorded outpourings are cut up, grossly manipulated and stitched back together again. Which doesn't say much for whoever thought it would be a good idea to record a couple of minutes of some track on FFWD>>, but gives enough reason to think that most of the artists contributing to this compilation would be pleasant company for a night down the pub.

As there are no track names on the disc (although further information is available www.detritus.net/illegalart/beck), individual reviews are somewhat pointless, but suffice to say that there's no shortage of experimentation, some of it a touch on the stroke-chin side, but in the main an interesting aural thesis on the usefulness of copyright law. On the musical front, the pieces that work best are those---more traditional---cuts where a beat has been appropriated and locks the, often fairly random, collages into some kind of groove. But if ambience is more your cuppa, there's plenty here for you too. In fact, it's full marks all round, unless you're some kind of anal Beck fanatic, in which case steer well clear...your Bible has just been pissed on.

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