I was working at Sony Music in their Film Soundtracks Division when I came across this little gem of an LP called 'Six Million Ways to Live.' It was 2003 and I was taking a hiatus from the rat race, so why not spend a few months poking around Sony Studios doing all kindsa odd jobs? Basically I was filling in for various music department staff who were on short-term leave or extended spring/summer vacations, so I was getting shuffled around from desk to desk.
The best post I had there was a several weeks' long stint on a 'special ops' project of re-organizing and cataloguing the division's Music Library. Unleashing a Musicoholic like me in this stockroom at the back of the office, shielded from supervising eyes, allowed to slosh around for hours in the stacks which were packed deep, shelved 8 feet high with row upon row of dusty CDs, not to mention the dozens and dozens of boxes haphazardly stacked on the floor, spilling over with mounds of unruly CDs? And get paid for it. Are you kidding me?!? This is musical Nirvana!
From the looks of it all, I'm not quite sure this music madness had ever been corralled and catalogued. Most of the cartons on the floor were likely the ones that get smuggled into the department by someone who knows someone who kinda sorta doesn't really know anyone, but hey, they got their band's demo disc into Sony Film Soundtracks division in hopes that some dood like me's gonna listen to their pride and joy and stardust dreams, fall head over heels in music lust with it, then pass it up to the likes of the Prez and VP (at the time, two super-cool ladies named Lia Vollack and Pilar McCurry), for inclusion on the next big Sony blockbuster soundtrack. That spring and summer, true blockbusters were in short supply over at Sony. S.W.A.T.? Charlie's Angels 2? Gigli? Anyone, anyone?
I can't tell you exactly how many gems I fished outta that murky Loch Ness of musical mysteriosos, but these London-based and Manchester-influenced Dub Pistols , a live band and DJ outfit led by Barry Ashworth, were one of my prime catches. The LP 'Six Million Ways' to live had actually been released in 2001, just prior to 9/11, as a promotional CD (it was subsequently put into wide release in the UK in 2003 and wasn't officially released in the U.S. til 2005!) The themes therein presaged Sept 11, 2001, and the chaotic, violent new chapter of world conflict that was upon us, and in which we were firmly living while I sat there in 2003. Songs on the LP are punctuated by ambient samples of voices echoing and sirens reverberating on digital delay, behind aggressive big beat percussion, funky basslines, blaring horns, electronic programming, and dubby walls of sound.
Amidst this moody, dark soundscape were some definite club-rocking beats and tracks. I've chosen my three favorites for sharing here. First up is the infectious, ferocious wordplay of Fresno, California's finest, featured guest rapper Planet Asia on the funky hip-hop assault of 'Architect':
1. Architect (Featuring Planet Asia)
'The Idea of Style, and Competing for the Best Style,
Is the Key to All Forms of Rocking....Rocking...Rocking...Rocking...Rocking...
...It's a New Millenium, Fear for Combat
I'm on the Water, Temporize All Contact
Your Beats are Bangin'
Boom! Your Squad is Done!
Step Up and Get Some
Bounce! Come On...Bounce! Come On!'
Next comes the old skool ska-inflected, orchestral hip-hop dancefloor dubness of 'Riptides,' featuring New York's own Sight Beyond Light and their multiple MCs on the mics, one of whom seems to be suffering from a seriously stuffy nose, as he incites the dub-club par-tay!
2. Riptides (Featuring Sight Beyond Light)
'We pull you in like Riptides (What? What!?!)
Tread Water While You Drift By (What? What!?!)
...Make Some Noise All My People Out There
Make Some Noise All My People In Here
Make Some Noise All the People Everywhere,
Make Some Noise!'
Finally, we end on the headbobbing, instrumental dubtronica-trip-hop workout 'Revolution,' with its simulated electronic foghorns sounding in the background, behind some hypnotic bass grooves, dubbed out brass on heavy digital delay, all swirling around in one big churning vortex of aural pleasure!
3. Revolution
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