Set in the year 3030, Deltron 3030's hip hop space odyssey is the inspired creation of producer Dan 'The Automator' Nakamura, Del The Funkee Homosapien and scratch master DJ Kid Koala.
Each contributor is a past master in his own right. Dan scored classic status with his Dr Octagon LP collaboration with DJ Q-Bert, as well as his association with the Quannum project, Handsome Boy Modelling School and production work for Primal Scream, the Eels, Cornershop, and DJ Krush. Del rose to prominence in the early Nineties with his seminal 1991 LP I Wish My Brother George Was Here. Ninja Tune's Kid Koala's has been having his name dropped from all the right lips for some time now, and his star is still very much in ascension. Together they form a super hero triumvirate who set about saving the galaxy from its inevitable self destruction in the year 3030.
The concept follows P-Funk traditions by using futurism to poke holes in the present and expose our follies through other worldly setting. Like George Clinton and Afrika Bambaataa's experiments, such as the latter's Shango collaboration with Bill Laswell, Deltron 3030 creates a new universe. As Del says: "I remake my universe every time I use a verse".
Deltron 3030 cracks its whip at capitalism, environmental destruction, theft and social inequity and general human short-sighted selfishness.
The P-Funk references are not surprising, given the influence that Clinton's breaks played on Del's earlier work, and the 'One' is certainly present here. But it's crunched into Dan's eclectic and inventive production menu that merrily plunders all hither known recipes to create a modern melange of future flavours. This pick and mix attitude leads to list of unlikely collaborations with artists such as Blur's Damon Albarn through to Sean Lennon.
The result is an album that is musically simultaneously light and dark. Softer edges of the Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride on 'Things You Can Do' float over disconcerting disturbing bass lines, urban depth charges drip through tracks such as 'Positive Contact', Disposable Heroes industrial sound collages collide with Premier breaks, subverted jazz bass lines or whimsical Romany guitar all set against the persistent War of The Worlds, Shango Funk Theology, Clinton-esque future world vision.
Unlike the navel gazing post hippie concept albums of yore, Dan, Del and Kid's concepts look outward to take in and then take on the world. They issue a warning albeit one that flits between humour and conveying a message.
"I want to devise a virus," raps Del, "crush the corporations with a mild touch, crash the whole computer system and revert it to papyrus."
Deltron 3030 is the future.
You have been warned.
clunk'85
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Transmission ceased
by Ben Osborne