Right About Now, Phat Pickings

Turn down the lights, turn on the strobe, and dress to impress, because it's Saturday night and the clubs are hopping with a whole new dance sensation. It's not quite hip-hop, nor techno, nor disco, and it is certainly not the macarena. Amid this chaos of spinning lights, moving bodies and exciting beats stands the world's most sought after DJ and most versatile party-guy, the forerunner of the Big Beat Movement, and the master of the remix: Fatboy Slim, a.k.a. Norman Cook. On his new album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, Fatboy Slim combines funk, soul, slamming techno and jazzy bits with ingenious samples and a vibrant sense of humor into a single, irresistible album. But unlike many other techno groups, Fatboy manages to maintain the immediate and improvisational texture of live club mixing while exploring the subtlety and precision of studio production--an innovative combination of his two previous albums, Better Living Through Chemistry and Live from the Floor of the Boutique. The result is an eclectic variety of imaginative samples and sensational beats that can be cranked on eighteen-inch speakers at a dance party or softly beard on headphones. Either way, Fatboy Slim's third album is a powerful and impressive success on many levels of appreciation.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby begins with the backward strings of "Right Here, Right Now," an ethereal track marked by oscillation between synthetic string arrangements and a soothing, choir-like vocal sample to sharp beats and cyber sounds. The song serves as an excellent demonstration of Fatboy Slim's integration of a wide and diverse variety of musical genres into his mixes, instead of relying solely on any particular sound. Fatboy keeps the beats interesting and unconventional at any tempo and consistently resists the urge to fall into static patterns in a musical genre that is notorious for relentless repetition.

The first track fades away into a monotone distortion that is unexpectedly disturbed by a radio sample ripped directly from the airwaves of Boston's own WBCN, a moment early in the album that shows the unique and hilarious humor characteristic of Fatboy's vocal sampling. The dialogue between a DJ and a caller serves as an interesting intro to the album's first single, "The Rockafeller Skank." The caller requests a song by Fatboy Slim, who he claims is "the band of the nineties," yet he can't even name the track that he wants to hear, except the continuously repeated vocal sample "Right about now, the funk soul brother. Check it out now, the funk soul brother," which Fatboy links directly into the opening measures. "The Rockafeller Skank" was released as a single in March, and served as the catalyst of the artist's recent mainstream popularity. The addictive Lord Finesse vocal sample and the twangy surf guitar augment the elastic beat and funky bass line to make it one of the best dance songs of the year. This track is Fatboy Slim at his best, as he manages to create a continuity of euphony that is unpredictable, despite its revolution around a single vocal sample. Fatboy builds up and breaks down the beat tempo without losing the song's dance appeal, a tribute to the remix master's genius. At one point, the rhythm nearly halts, but then blasts back with a hip-hop sound. Fatboy Slim does not merely piece together some fragmented synthetic ideas into a five-minute track, but instead evolves the song from the basics to a masterpiece of mixology.

Incredibly, Fatboy seems to always have another trick up his DJ sleeve. Although the album is best suited for dance clubs, it certainly can be appreciated for its artistic elements. The best example is the track "In Heaven." The track has its roots in remixed funk and soul, rather than techno. This is why it is so difficult to restrict Fatboy Slim to a certain category or musical genre. Instead, he utilizes every genre in the strangest and most appealing combinations. In "Gangster Tripping," he blends a hip-hop beat and vocals with a big band brass arrangement and a Caribbean steel drum. At times, there are so many diverse elements to a song thatmany of his innovations can only be appreciated ifcarefully heard three or four times. In sharpcontrast, on the very next track, "Build itUp--Tear at Down," cyber distortion combines witha relatively slower beat tempo and a conspicuously'80s hair-rock vocal refrain. The overall effectof these seemingly unrelated and clashing soundsamples can only be understood in the context ofFatboy Slim's mixing style and amazing abilities.In lesser hands, such combinations would soundawful, but it appears that Norman Cook can makeanything sound good.

Although the description of the elements ofeach song sounds as distasteful and cacophonous asa peanut butter and venison sandwich, the endresults are imaginative, innovative andsuccessful. "Kalifornia" is the mosttechno-influenced track on the album, relyingheavily on vocal distortion and cyber sounds. Asample that sounds like a whining robot babyunites the menagerie of synthetic noises. The onlyrecognizable lyrics are the repeatedtongue-in-cheek phrase "Kalifornia is drugee,drugee." The album then takes a major U-turn in"Praise You," sporting a funky bass line, a pianoaccompaniment that sounds like it was written byBilly Joel and emotional soul vocals. Fatboy Slimkeeps the beats pumping with "Love Island," thebest and most Euro dance track, which would surgeany dance club with crowd adrenaline.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby is theultimate dance party album, as Fatboy Slim hasmanaged to instill the vibrant energy of a liveclub atmosphere into a studio production. He notonly mixes beats and samples but also draws upon awide range of musical genres that are delicatelyblended into a funky, slamming, jazzy, high-energyswirling tornado of techno genius. The eleventracks do not amount to sixty minutes of monotonyand repetition, but instead boldly explores newavenues of music by using the roots of almostevery other pop musical genre. The result is arevolutionary album that will pave the way for awhole new outlook on synthetic and cyber mixing.The leader of the Big Beat movement has created inYou've Come a Long Way, Baby an album thatwill be imitated by those who wish to bring theparty like only Fatboy Slim can

Although the description of the elements ofeach song sounds as distasteful and cacophonous asa peanut butter and venison sandwich, the endresults are imaginative, innovative andsuccessful. "Kalifornia" is the mosttechno-influenced track on the album, relyingheavily on vocal distortion and cyber sounds. Asample that sounds like a whining robot babyunites the menagerie of synthetic noises. The onlyrecognizable lyrics are the repeatedtongue-in-cheek phrase "Kalifornia is drugee,drugee." The album then takes a major U-turn in"Praise You," sporting a funky bass line, a pianoaccompaniment that sounds like it was written byBilly Joel and emotional soul vocals. Fatboy Slimkeeps the beats pumping with "Love Island," thebest and most Euro dance track, which would surgeany dance club with crowd adrenaline.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby is theultimate dance party album, as Fatboy Slim hasmanaged to instill the vibrant energy of a liveclub atmosphere into a studio production. He notonly mixes beats and samples but also draws upon awide range of musical genres that are delicatelyblended into a funky, slamming, jazzy, high-energyswirling tornado of techno genius. The eleventracks do not amount to sixty minutes of monotonyand repetition, but instead boldly explores newavenues of music by using the roots of almostevery other pop musical genre. The result is arevolutionary album that will pave the way for awhole new outlook on synthetic and cyber mixing.The leader of the Big Beat movement has created inYou've Come a Long Way, Baby an album thatwill be imitated by those who wish to bring theparty like only Fatboy Slim can