Vegas

Review by Darren Gawle

Say what you will about 'electronica', all you musical Luddites, but make no mistake -- electronic music has been the only truly fresh item on the menu in the 1990's. And with today's new generation of electronic acts providing a classic balls-out rocks removal experience without a Marshall stack in sight, people who think that only guitars can produce 'music' better get with the program quickly.

With their debut album Vegas, Los Angeles' Crystal Method exploit the gap breached three years ago by the Chemical Brothers. Club-goers will already be familiar with the tracks "Trip Like I Do" (a different version from the one on the Spawn soundtrack) and "Busy Child," and, thankfully, there's more where they came from. "High Roller" is the highlight of Vegas -- a steaming great slab of groove which approximates what the planet Jupiter would sound like as interpreted by 2001's HAL 9000 computer. "Keep Hope Alive" nods knowingly to the Chemical Brothers, while Trixy Reiss adds a Luscious Jackson/Curve vocal flavour to "Comin' Back" and "Jaded."

It's almost a matter of course that the British 'electronic invasion' wasn't going to remain British very long. With the Crystal Method, there's evidence that American club music can advance beyond the increasingly stagnant sounds of top-40 hip-hop and R&B.

Crystal Method will be playing the Palladium in Vancouver on Friday, March 6, 1998, along with BT and DJ Czech.