Originally written by Ian Chainey
Killing Joke‘s recently released In Dub remix collection is a monster. Taking cuts from across their career, on-again-off-again-on-again-and-on-and-on bassist Martin “Youth” Glover has done a yeoman’s job of stitching together three discs of BOOMING, subsonic plates to rival the nervous-system disruption of Scorn. It’s a hell of a thing, more legit than a NY Times obit. In Dub mingles rumbling jungle toasting amidst pulsating bass throbs, car-crash smash ’em ups, and open-hand-slap snares in a way that doesn’t come off as instantly dated or, say, a tea party to be played while the adults are away. This superior quality shouldn’t come as a curveball, since Youth (taking his name from Big Youth, hint hint) has made a career of this stuff after his first stint in Joke ended in ’82. A tour: He handled the low end for Brilliant, went into the biz with Alex Paterson and birthed WAU! Mr. Modo, and continues to be an in-demand knob twiddler for everyone from The Verve (sad face) to The Orb (happy face). Plus, Killing Joke is no stranger to the…REEE-MIX (*airhorns*), boxing out a place in DJ decks by crossing over to an industrial/post-punk/new-wave, bedecked-in-black-but-we-dancin’ crowd. (In fact, here’s fifteen minutes of their “Killer Dub” and “The World is Hell,” a previous Youth remix that’s even bassier on this set. Really! Ripley’s!) Granted, this isn’t the way to get into KJ, but if you’ve already laughed and bought one, it’s a rich dessert. That said, if you’re in the farmer’s market for BF-OR growing a different rhythmic rutabaga, maybe this will quell your RIFFFFFFFFFFS shakes.
Sample? Sure. From the iconic Killing Joke (1980), here’s “Tomorrow’s World” next to the Urban Primitive Dub.
Damn. Anyway, you can pick up a copy through Pledge Music. Considering how many tunes you’re getting, it’s a bangin’ bargain.
Okay, besides the KJ PSA, what exactly are we doing here? Well, we, your scribe clergy, decided the lord’s day should be set aside for nonsense (BECAUSE IT IS ALREADY! OOO! ORGANIZED RELIGION BURN!). So, to christen Weird Sunday, we’re going Three Steps Down the YouTube Black Hole!
Rules: Beginning with a relevant video, take the next three stops on the YouTube Suggestions train.
Document your results. Points are accrued for the WTF-ness (scale: 1-5) of your findings. Trust: It will get WTF-y since YouTube’s algorithm was apparently coded the same way as Hackers‘ TV station takeover. Ready? Let’s roll.
Starting Point:
KILLING JOKE – IN CYTHERA (BANDA REMIX)
Here’s the other “single” from In Dub. It’s goes a bit more in the drum n’ bass direction, recalling LTJ Bukem’s ultra-atmospheric, misty jungle from the early ’90s. It’s one of a few respites placed on each disc to ensure your battered brains don’t leak out your nose. Therapy, maybe. Cool stuff, and a nice flip of a MMXII highlight. Still, I hope the filthier than a priest’s porn subscription “Money is Not Our God” hits the ‘Tubes. That’s the track that’ll be a sump pump to your bank account.
Onward!
First Step:
REBELIA – JAK ZLOTA SKALA
Is…this rasta XTC? And…it’s from Poland…since that makes sense. Despite the fact it smells like a freshman’s dorm, it’s kind of catchy in that, “Mortifying life decisions are funny after exceeding the five year statute of limitations, right?” JAH WILL PROVIDE FOR ME TEXTBOOKS, YAH?
WTF-ness: 2. If you tried to explain this to someone, they’d find it plausible while urinating on your sneakers. Not weird, just sad; one of those moments when the restaurant inexplicably quiets down right when you’re screaming about your removed nutsack mole. That, and it’s hum drum, as exciting as the newest Olympic event, Who Can Fall Asleep the Fastest While Reading an Off-the-rails Dostoyevsky Chapter. This would’ve been exotic pre-Net. Al Gore says we can do better. Step in the name of weird!
Second Step:
HANNA BANASZAK – POGODA DUCHA
And down the Polish rabbit’s hole we go. First off, holy shit, this is filmed like a softcore feature with Barbara Walters as the cinematographer. Then, the facial ticks. THE FACIAL TICKS. You could yell SPOON! at a twitchy grandfather clock housed in a deer’s butthole and you wouldn’t get those ticks. AND WHY ARE YOU HOLDING KEYS, HANNA? Wait, you dangerous succubus, did you pick those out of a bowl? Is this a swinger’s party? Are we gearing up for half a minute of acting like neither of us ever encountered a zipper? All of it, uh, quickly culminating into an emotional black cloud that’ll finally rain tears on the ride home in front of our alimony-calculating spouses? Can’t wait! But, but I can. I totally can.
Studio-sent infidelity note: Stop pulling on your eyelid like that. I’m not a Magic Eye, Hanna! I have feelings, too!
WTF-ness: 2. This is only weird if Ms. Banaszak is your mom and this caused you to spend the rest of the day measuring the span between your birthday and this video shoot. Again, not weird. Unless this is Europe’s Hanna-Barbera… EXIT, STAGE LEFT.
Third Step:
ANDRZEJ ZAUCHA – BADZ MOIM NATCHNIENIEM
UH, WEIRD. Yep, that’s Poland’s Dean Martin hunting for mushrooms. Appropriate, given the head-state you should be in for the rest of this thing. After sixteen seconds, the trap door of utter batshittery opens under you: WOODLAND JAZZ ENSEMBLE! Of course, this is the infamous scene cut from Bambi‘s acid trip sequence. Zaucha’s skeevy approach stumble to the band is kind of the best: “OH, YOU ALCOHOLISM-INDUCED FUGUE STATE ANGELS!” He then proceeds to spend the rest of the running time acting like if Bill Clinton was given a free-pass to harass anything for four minutes without consequence. Except for the cutaways, that is, when HUNTERS START BAGGING AND TAGGING THE WOMEN. For science? To understand the migration patterns of ladies? TO BUILD A BIG GIRL BONFIRE? (Fav Scorpions album!) Nah, because Andrzej Zaucha needs to *snnnrrrt* play The Most Dangerous Game if he’s going to shoot a shitty video, damnit. Andrzej ‘stache quivers in anticipation. It’s time to make the goddamn donuts.
A little research turns up evidence that the Dean Martin comparison ain’t unfounded. Zaucha was a top Polish rower, winning a domestic medal, and had an acting career alongside his Polish chart-topping smooth move whatever. Noir ending, though: He died in 1991, aged 42, after getting shot to death with his lover by her ex-husband. Yikes.
WTF-ness: 4. Beelzebub Zaucha inspired Behemoth. True story.*
*Not a true story. But Ross said so.**
**No he didn’t.
Alright, your turn. Start your engines near a Killing Joke dub track. Set? Go!
