Formula (undated)

CRIME Gangster Funk/Maserati (B-Square Records).  What is funk?  Frankie Valentino, with a tip of his snap-brim Stetson to James Chance, puts the moves in the grooves and gives us "Gangster Funk", an A side that wants to be on a soul station real bad.

Valentino (aka Fix) is a performer who comes close to stylistic perfection.  In line with the bands recent transformation, his trademark snarl has become more of a southside sneer.  He's still a punk in the classic sense, but with this cut he's definitely trying to get his thang sleek and tight.

CRIME recently brought back the infamous Ron "Ripper" Greco to play bass, the quasi-legendary Brittley Black to pound the second-oldest Rogers trap kit in existence (inherited from his father, Dave Black, a well-known jazz drummer) and put Joey D'Kaye, bassist, sound tech and producer-about-town, on synthesizer.

In "Gangster Funk" the synthesizer machine-guns, meows, queeps, gurgles and generally funks around all over the place on top of the James Brown riff, the Apollo Theater bass line and the Different Fur Studios kick drum thud.  The CRIME-patented Gibson-through-Marshall-stacks-cranked-past-10 wall-of-guitar-shriek sound is mixed in there somewhere, too.  Frankie wails like Michael Jackson on methadone and the lyrics include a cast of thousands: James Brown, Iggy Pop, Jesus Christ, Redd Foxx, Al Capone, Machine Gun Slim, William Burroughs, Subway Jim, King Kong, Hollywood, the Junkie Twist and New York City, to name a few.  In short, a catalog of contemporary obsessions to that bad, bad beat.  Most interesting.  More listenable than the Contortions; even approaches danceability.  Sounds terrific through a disco PA system.

In "Maserati", another A side, Johnny St. John has written, performed and recorded a track that is more Aqua Velvet than Velvet Underground in its lyrics and musical style.  The song uses an old CRIME riff from the relentless rocker days, but it's processed through the Different Fur microchips so that it's...uh...elegant, although it still manages to make one nervous.  The synthesizer whooshes, evoking sleek Italian tires hissing on a rainsoaked street at 4:00 a.m.

The rhythm section does a speedy autobahn shuffle, and Strike croons the opium-fantasy lyrics in the best Euro-tradition.  Except for the electronic voice quavering at the mid-song break, the general effect is indeed that of cruising at 90 mph in rarefied Alpine air.

It works almost perfectly, and the lyrics are worth mention: "This is the modern auto, this is the modern trend..."

The single is out on B-Square Records, the production is a bit, shall we say, magnanimous, but it's a definite recommended buy.  CRIME is no dinosaur in disguise.  Loud as ever, but clean.  About as new wave as Iggy Pop.  Absurdly refreshing band and single.  Catch their new act live if you can.

Unknown (undated)

CRIME - "Gangster Funk" / "Maserati" (B-Square): An astonishing advance over past efforts.  This isn't just listenable.  It's downright commercial.  "Gangster Funk" is Famous Flames revisited; cooljerk R&B with '80s' lacquer.  On the flip, they've placed "Maserati": pumping piston beat and jet-stream guitars.  Thanks to CRIME, B-Square Recordsmakes an auspicious debut.

BAM (undated)

CRIME: "Gangster Funk/Maserati" (B-Square).  If you haven't actually heard CRIME in the past, you've probably heard of them - no one is as hyped and out there in the public eye as CRIME.  They haven't released any new material in a couple of years, and the old stuff...well, it was good at the time, but it is kind of inpenetrably dense and awkwardly stiff in retrospect.  But forget anything you ever knew about CRIME.  This new record is something else!  Have they changed!  (I think it's the real them, sans some notion of conforming with some kind of a help movement like "punk" or "n.w." or something just outside of music.)

There are five members now; they've added ex-Nuns producer Joey D'Kaye on synthesizer and they've gotten back the irreplaceable Brittley Black on drums.  But it's the songs even more than the tightness and excitement of the band's sound that makes this single such a stand-out.  Frankie Fix's "Gangster Funk" has SOUL.  "James Brown, Iggy Pop, Jesus Christ, Red Foxx...."  That's how it starts and that's what it is.  Fix's youth on the streets of Philadelphia come through on every line.  Great single!  (HK)

Unknown (undated)

CRIME - Gangster Funk/Maserati (B square).  A diluted CRIME sound that almost amounts to a crime on the funky one.  I've listened to this a lot, guys, and I call bullshit.  Not a bad riff, not a bad sound, but it's too forced and clean for what it's trying to be.  "Maserati" is the killer, aa funny piece of jive chic that turns theforeign status emblem on its subliminal sexual ear with a bizarre man/machine metaphor.  "This is the coup de kill".  I liked this record a lot more before I listened to "Hot Wire My Heart" again right alongside.  This is bathwater to the touch compared to that boiling oil.  Also...why the name change!  Frankie Fix and Johnny Strike were PERFECT!  Valentino and St. John can't come close.  Also why is everyone on the sleeve copping that look that falls somewhere between Devo and the Screamers, backed up against the ole Two Tone ska checkerboard?  A cheap shot that CRIME definitely don't need. (Chris D.)