gullbuy music review

Another Fine Mess - F/C Kahuna

title

Another Fine Mess - F/C Kahuna

label

Azuli

format
various artists CD

Another Fine Mess CD coverAnother Fine Mess is a compilation put together by Dan and Jon Kahuna - FC Kahuna. The same people who put out the 'Another Late Night' compilations put this out.

The whole disc is very upbeat - no chill out at all. The music is disco punk, electroclash, electro house - call it whatever you wish. Just don't give me the standard 'electroclash is dead and how did we ever like this stuff' line. Because if you have no prejudice about disco and like upbeat electronic dance music, what is the question? There is tons of great stuff being released now for you and I. Another Fine Mess is one such disc.

I don't like ALL the tracks, but I like most of it quite a lot. The disc is mixed, so djs trying to play a single track will have to be wary, even though tracks are separated by numbers. The first three tracks and tracks 8, 9, and 10 work particularly well together. The only down side of this disc is that is was very expensive where I bought it here in the US.

  1. Jolly Music K-Fun (FC Kahuna rmx) As FC Kahuna say: We tried taking the jolly from the music by doing a funked-up tripped out electro house remix, they didn't like it that much...said we made the female singer sound like a chap. We however, approve. This track starts off the disc quite well. Italian band Jolly music rejected this mix. I'm glad it found a home here.
  2. FC Kahuna Nothing is Wrong (Radioslave re-edit) Our favorite Brighton illegal audio choppers dirty up a 'Machine Says Yes' album track and so render it dangerous and scruffy. The Radioslave remix of this trackfits like a glove between the neighboring songs.
  3. The Juan MacLean By The Time I Get To Venus Coming from the much loved DFA stable is this comparitively obscure outing which is both ridiculous and genius - not that many tracks can claim such merit and this never fails to disco us up. DFA, we thank ya... Nice instrumenal taken from a DFA 12inch which came out last summer, before the label became so popular. Juan MacLean is a former member of the Rhode Island band six Finger Satellite.
  4. Brett Johnson Stucco Homes (Freaks rmx) Remixers Justin Harris and Luke Solomon were always gonna make a track like this - proper drug vocals and bleep freakiness. Parts recall David Byrne lyrics in Talking Heads Once In A Lifetime. Then there is the repeated "seashells" lyric which I can make no sense of.
  5. The Free Association Everybody Knows Rough around the edges breakbeat instrumental remix from Hugo Nicholson, who has, over time, provided much pleasure in his contributions to our collections. This picks bits from Mr Holmes infamous record box and messes with your body and your mind. The repeated word "seashells" continues for a minute into this short 1:20 track.
  6. Trash Palace The Metric System (Headman version) Flat out bass-driven disco funk thing we love. I like Headman a lot. I am still searching for the 10" he did for Gomma. All the mixes he does are ace, but I will pass on this one. I just don't like the song. Brian Molko'v vocals leave me out.
  7. Risky Disco Bakazou Made by a bloke from that record shop Koobla which is quite new and on Berwich Street, London. Instrumenal with stone solid bass/drum beat and bouncing keyboards, plus a brass part sounding like its played in the house next door.
  8. Daniel Wang Warped A sublime slice of lo-fi electro house from Daniel Wang. He doesn't do many records like this (in fact he wondered how the hell we knew about this one) but he should do. Works perfectly with the two songs surrounding it. The do-do-do-do vocal is just ace.
  9. Green Velvet Dang Marching party acapella from chicago man with funny hairdo. What, I ask, is he on about? I never thought I would like him after that Lalaland song, but this one is very nice.
  10. LB Superbad Soul Substitute When we were finishing 'Machine Says Yes,' this got a fair few downtime plays and found favour with everyone involved - a unique occurence in itself! The Uwe Schmidt electro cover project that was called both LB and Lassigue Bendthaus. A complete re-invention of James Brown.
  11. Blur Music Is My Radar Genius band, genius track I had never heard this period of Blur. It sounds way better that I remmeber them, but I would fall short of the praise FC Kahuna gave them above.
  12. Atom Plus 1 A proper 'in the field' bit od acid house from home of early Tenaglia, Deep dish, et al. Uwe Schmidt makes two appearances on this comp. Nice!
  13. Wink A Track Mr Winkleman shows us how not to do it by blasting us with frenetic wigged-out noise - guaranteed to spice up any track into a late-set zone and destroy territory! I'm not crazy about this Josh Wink track. It has some sounds that remind me of an oscilloscope being used to test a speaker, and other sounds that make me think of a dentist drill. It DOES have a rock solid bass part as deep as any Playgroup track.
  14. FC Kahuna Mindset To Cycle First track we completed for our album and still one that we more than occasionally play out - always gets a cheer and we're suckers for that sort of thing... Probably my favorite track on the disc. The bass is so thick! It is an instrumental that you really can't resist.
  15. Christopher Just I Just Love Acid Too More bleep rave tackle - this time fully embracing the 'aciieeed' call of old (still no 303 though, I'm proud to say) I don't like this one too much. A repeated vocal and staccato synths underlaid by a steady dancefloor beat.
  16. Nightmares On Wax Dextrous To start rounding off procedures, we wanted a record that took us back to the place where it all started for us - late 80s, Leeds Warehouse A knocker of an instrumental. Probably my second fave track on the comp. This is the reason I sought out the Nightmares On Wax 'Another Late Night' CD.
  17. The Polyphonic Spree Hanging Around ...and a record which truly never fails to make our hearts smile. I had read about them a lot, but never heard them till this. Polyphonic Spree are much better than I had figured! Seeing pictures of them with white robes, I had expected a new age chorus. What I hear is more like the Ware artist Coloma. Very tuneful, very full music behind it, and not odd at all (as their image is)

Track by track descriptions above were written by FC Kahuna and taken from the liner notes to the disc

---Carl, September 2, 2003