BAD BOY BILL - BANGIN THE BOX V4
Bad Boy Bill may not be a household name yet, but just you wait. Three years ago nobody knew who Fatboy Slim was either. Bill, like Mr Slim is a DJ with a high self-image who tends to drop references to himself in his sets. Bad Boy Bill however, is a house DJ, and he doesn't let you forget it.
Over the course of 74 minutes he mixes together 35 tracks in the style of a hip-hop DJ: heavy on the cuts and generally scratching the fuck out of everything, including tunes by Armand Van Helden, Angel Alanis, JS-16, Peplab and Soul Grabber. Now I'm not the hugest Armand fan, but the way Bill takes his semi-good "Psychic Bounty Killaz" and totally turns it upside down is amazing. He literally turns a needle skip into a rhythm.
The whole mix is full of familiar (and not-so-familiar) dance beats chopped up and reassembled as something more than what it once was. Bad Boy Bill makes it clear that the standard house formula is not a ceiling on creativity. He pushes, pulls, and generally re-arranges the hell out of convention without ever damaging the formula that has successfully defined house (disco) music for the last 20 years. (Are you listening, Armand?)
Bangin v4 is definitely a party record, with not a dull moment anywhere, yet without resorting to the obnoxiousness of big beat. My only hope is that I hear "Acid Fucker" in a Toyota commercial.