You've Come A Long Way, Baby :
Norman Cook's bubble-gum techno songs--put out under a variety of guises over the years, including Pizzaman and Freak Power--are essential staples on any international dance floor. Fatboy Slim, however, is the former Housemartin's most successful incarnation, launching a Top 40 crossover hit and popular advertising jingle with last year's "Going out of My Head." You've Come a Long Way, Baby picks up where the smash single left off, cheekily pairing acidic synthesizers and drum machines with big, dumb vocal samples. It takes considerable effort sitting through an entire album of these energized tunes, but taken in small doses, songs like "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Soul Surfing" are like rays of sunshine.
On the Floor at the Boutique:
Finally, the U.S. sees a domestic release of Fatboy Slim's On the Floor at the Boutique, hands down one of the most thrilling, addictive DJ mix albums ever released. Recorded live in 1998 at the Big Beat Boutique (epicenter of the mid- to late-'90s big-beat movement), Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, takes the listener on a fascinating, diverse tour of four-on-the-floor sounds. What's always made Cook so great is the way that he seamlessly blends seemingly incongruous sounds to create righteously cool, shiny new beats; he truly is the trainspotting vinyl freak with an uncanny talent for creating accessible dance-floor shakers built of weird components.
Reviews Copyright Amazon.com, 2000
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Take track 4--who'd have thought a spry blue-beat ska sample, an ELO riff, phat beats, a few stray horn riffs, and a sped-up Jungle Brothers vocal track would be one of the coolest things heard all year?
Greatest Remixes:
Subtlety does not exist in Fatboy Slim's world. The no-nonsense king of big beat has a job to do: get the party started right. The relentless musical hook is at the center of Greatest Remixes. Reggae and ska rhythms ("Magic Carpet Ride," "Get Up! Go Insane!"), R&B lines ("The World's Made Up of This and That," "What Is Kahuna?"), and acid-synth ("Roll the Dice") are all just grist for the groove mill. "Dubby Jointy" is the disc's wildest track. Backwards tape whooshes, a screaming guitar lick, and a crazed, creepy vocal part coalesce into an inspired version. The album's closer, a remix of "E.V.A." by Jean Jacques Perrey surprises. Fatboy knows enough not to mess too much with the 30-year-old song. The original--funky, loungy, and spacy--could have been recorded last week.
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