Krazy Baldhead: The B-Suite
I don't think that anyone but the most hardened of Ed Banger fans would admit that they have been somewhat off the boil since their heyday in 2007, perhaps the last real innovative release being Mr. Oizo’s Patrick 122 (see the original it samples from Gary’s Gang – Do It At The Disco) over a year ago now. So I have to confess to approaching the new Krazy Baldhead record with a touch of caution, despite having been a fan of his Dry Guilotine/Crazy Motherfuckas release back in 2006.
I am happy to say, that almost immediately upon pressing play, I was greeted by something that, while unmistakably Ed Banger, seemed to bring back that little spark that made them so appealing a few years ago. Mr. Baldhead (aka Pierre-Antoine Grison) has started off by approaching the album from a very different approach to your average. Consisting of sixteen tracks, spread across four “movements”, consisting of four “parts” for the first two movements, three for the third while the remaining five make up the fourth and final movement. One could almost conceive that he has purposefully approached this electro record from a classical perspective, with the use of movements with interrelating parts, flowing together as though part of a mixtape, all the while remaining distinguishable individuality.
The opening movement is constructed around a funky, yet distorted, pulsating bassline, whilst flowing in and out with more blissed out, melodic moments before morphing back into where it started from in part one.
Part two opens up with a jazz freefall before breaking out into an electronic take on the intro and drops smoothly into a funk fuelled electro/hip-hop piece featuring Tes on vocals. Part three sees the funk bass take on more of groove with some crunching synths layered subtlely on top, before part four chops things up somewhat and takes us within the realms of Oizo and sebastiAn-esque material.
Movement numero trois takes into electro/rap territory with guest vocalists Big-O and MllE Yulia, bleeps, electronic squeals and vivacious loops, leading into a laidback melody and some very low-end bass. This slowly builds into an almost techno-esque piece, circulating around stabbing strings which drops away into distorted rhythmical bass loops and becomes a rather wonderful piece featuring Outlines, harking back to their remix of DJ Mehdi.
The fourth movement goes straight in for the epic jugular, all intense bass and solid drums before suddenly stripping back to a beautiful, high pitched melody and an odd vocal sample which leads gently into the next piece of the puzzle, which slowly crescendos into a traditional piece of slamming electro. Part three gives way to a slowed down, distorted and grimy piece which follows into part four, where strings are layered over the top and leads towards a final assault featuring the Beat Assailant which closes down this album with somewhat of a bang.
Ed Banger Rides again.
Words: James Hoste
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