Anyone remember the early '80s? Not the tacky synthpop and fantasies of conspicuous consumption revived by so many clueless fashion victims right now, but the fierce underground sounds of that time. In the past couple of years, an alternative '80s revival has quietly taken place, a rediscovery of the brutal funk/punk hybrids created by the likes of A Certain Ratio, The Pop Group, Cabaret Voltaire and, especially, 23 Skidoo.
Championed by Andy Weatherall and heroically ripped off by The Chemical Brothers on 'Block Rocking Beats', 23 Skidoo were a bunch of martial arts and William Burroughs fanatics who realised in 1981 that the energy of punk could be combined with tribal percussion, hip-hop and all manner of trance-inducing funk. As 'Seven Songs', their debut album, proves, it was a great hunch. Recorded in three days by two members of proto-industrialists Throbbing Gristle, 'Seven Songs' moves from claustrophobic ambience to, more successfully, remorseless grooves that still sound brilliant today.
1984's 'Urban Gamelan', also unavailable since the late '80s, is a more schizophrenic beast. Initially, it seems to carry on in the same vein, allbeit with an expanded interest in reggae (dated quite badly, incidentally). For the second half, however, Skidoo attempt, quite literally, an urban gamelan by banging a lot of scrap metal in the style of Test Department or Einsturzende Neubauten. Forbidding in principle, it's actually oddly charming, if a little like having small pieces of car rolling around in your head. How big beat would've turned out if The Chemical Brothers had been "inspired" by this gear instead of 'Coup' is intriguing, to say the least.
