In the eighties, Tom Withers aka Klute was involved in a punk band called The Stupids. The group had some significant success, even managing to tour America once or twice.
Sometime in the early nineties though, Tom got caught up in early UK rave sounds and European techno and when the band split, turned his attentions to the sampler. Since then he's come up with some significant twelve inches under various nom de disques as well as 'Casual Bodies' (1998), an album that caused a ruckus amongst d & b heads.
At a time when everyone was getting more and more obsessed with technology, Klute offered a sound that was more concerned with textures and arrangements, moods and drum patterns and was influenced by the dark jazz stylings of players like Archie Shepp.
This album follows on from where 'Casual Bodies' left off, illustrating other influences (soundtracks for example) as well as harking back to his early techno days and allowing some excursions into downtempo territory.
Once again, Klute's complex drum patterns are impulsive and edgy, especially on darker cuts like 'Double Dealer' and 'Rivals'. On tracks like 'T.D.C.C.' and 'Blank' though he is more concerned with creating a kind of futuristic Detroit flavour while 'Kahno', 'Phone Call' and 'Moving Finger' drop the bpm factor without losing their more abstracted flavour.
'Red Ruth' and 'Angry Woman' prove he can still pull the dancefloor rollers out of the bag when he needs to. Other producers may follow trends but genuine musical maverick's like Klute will always cut their own paths.
by Paul Sullivan