FAT BOY SLIM
YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY
by Ben

CD Released: 1999

Who would have ever thought that drippy English pop outfit the Housemartins could spawn some of the catchiest dance singles of the last two years? More accurately, it's ex-Housemartin Norman Cooke who has spellbound listeners with singles like "Everybody Needs a 303" and "Going Out of My Head" under his pseudonym, Fatboy Slim. Cooke doesn't purport to making serious songs; he's dedicated instead to concocting undeniable dance-floor fillers that border on wholehearted hip-hop anthems. And Fatboy Slim's second album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, teems with even more catchy numbers than its predecessor. From his sampling technique to the tempo of his beats to the source of many of his vocal samples, Cooke's compositions have a decisively hip-hop feel to them. His biggest single, and perhaps this summer's most fetching, "The Rockafeller Skank," wins listeners over with its looped vocal clip ("Right about now, funk soul brother, check it out now.") courtesy  of rapper Lord Finesse. Cooke plays with dueling aesthetics, weaving hip-hop beats and vocals with surf-guitar riffs, turning the track into a bumping seaside jam. Its inclusion here is enough to sell the album alone. Fatboy Slim's songs may be approached from a distinctly hip-hop perspective, yet he likes to incorporate other elements, making his works redefined pop-audio collages. "Soul Surfing"includes the same sort of ocean-side shimmy as "Rockafeller," but instead of a rapper's tenor, he loops a female soul group. Beyond infectious vocal samples, Cooke's rhythmic arrangements also hook deep, as he shows great affection for big beats and big sounds. In "Gangster Tripping," complementing a sample of rapper CL Smooth (taken, oddly, from an obscure DJ Shadow single), he uses robust and playful horns to drive the track. As the sounds repeat themselves into a funk frenzy, you get the feeling that Cooke is just a kid having a laugh with his new sampling and DJ equipment. And indeed, he is.After digesting 50-plus minutes of music, it's easy to dissect Cooke's somewhat formulaic approach. Even he admits that what he does isn't rocket science. But that's the point, and when he's having fun, we're having fun.