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cdr|m's
.:: a klangwerk release ..................................................::.
artist :: girls on top
release :: being scrubbed/i wanna dance with numbers
year :: 2001
genre :: electronic
label :: what goes around!
catalogue :: sss111
ripper :: karmacoma
date :: 11-sep-2002
quality :: 192kbps/44,1khz
source :: vinyl
.::.......................................................................::.
a being scrubbed 3:39
b i wanna dance with numbers 4:50
playtime :: 00h 08m 29s
.::.......................................................................::.
after v/vm and their vicious assault on the sacred cows of
nostalgia-pop, along comes avant-terrorist rich x in his girls on
top guise, to further disrupt the fabric of sonic spacetime. the
concept here is so artfully executed that it's enough to rewire
your synapses: 'being scrubbed' locks together the human league's
'being boiled' with tlc's vocal from 'no scrubs', a fit so perfect
that you're suddenly shifted into an entirely alternate universe
where the r&b classic is no longer an insouciant funky strut
through hyper-beats but a menacingly apocalyptic goth-pop mantra.
this is nothing, however, compared to the b-side, the real reason
that this is single of the week. 'i wanna dance with numbers'
overlays whitney houston's diva croon from 'i wanna dance with
somebody' onto kraftwerk's 'numbers', and the result, far from
being the genre-clash mismatch you might expect, is astonishingly
moving. whitney's vocal floats over the proto-electro beats and
looped synth pulses, creating a kind of euphoric techno-soul
hybrid. that such a simple idea could produce something so
profoundly affecting, and from something so gut-wrenchingly banal
as an '80s whitney houston performance, suggests that rich x is
some kind of decks duchamp. it's a juxtaposition of the mundane
and the sublime, creating a third aesthetic that transcends both
original sources and allows you to see the world in a new way.
quite a feat for an unassuming act of turntable trickery.
the icing on the culture-jamming cake is the 45's sleeve, which
parodies the cover to kraftwerk's 'the man machine', only with the
unsmiling faces of germany's finest faux-robots replaced with
whitney's cheesy-grin visage. messing with heads that's girls on
top all over.
.::.......................................................................::.
greetings :: sb, qdp, sour, dps, it, rac, dh, sfe, hbz, igr and mgc
.::.......................................................................::.