FIRE

Ferry Corsten

I don’t know how he’s managed it, but Ferry Corsten does seem to have a knack of putting out decent songs over a long period of time. That’s not easy, mind you it’s not like he’s in the habit of releasing something every five minutes. This is a bloke who takes his time, making sure everything’s just right, before deciding that the public (that’s you and me) are ready for his latest offering. Seems to work, though, so who am I to criticise? Oh yes that’s right, a music reviewer, therefore it’s my job. Now, if you were going to put out a trance track that sampled Duran Duran, which of their songs would you pillage? The Reflex? Girls On Film? Meet El Presidente? All worthy choices, I’m sure, but you’d be wrong. No, he’s gone for that all-time classic, Serious. A tune so legendary that when it was released in November 1990, it took the charts by storm as it powered its way unrelentingly… to number 48. Quite. When it comes right down to it though, if you believe in the charts you might as well believe in fairies and all as chart positions don’t really mean a lot, and the vocals Mr Corsten has borrowed seem to fit in with the tune, so everybody’s happy (especially a Mr S. Le Bon Esq., the royalties will no doubt come in handy for a new conservatory or something). One day Ferry Corsten is going to really surprise me by releasing something really dire, but until then this’ll do nicely.

HELL YES

Beck

You’ve got to feel sorry for Beck. Once you’ve seen the video to this single, I’m willing to bet that you won’t be thinking what a great song you’ve just heard. No, you’ll be gobsmacked by the (apparently genuine) dancing robots. They’re amazing, they do most things that proper dancers can do (and with considerably more personality than some), they even high-five each other and take a bow at the end of the song. Song… oh yeah, almost forgot about that! It’s a reasonably funky effort that’s mainly notable for Beck rapping throughout (in the same sense that Neil Tennant was rapping on West End Girls) and also for hiring that strange thing from Tron that can only say yes or no to do the backing vocals. Not bad, but completely upstaged by the video and that’s where the problem lies. This is only coming out on 7”, so you won’t even get the video on the disc. Oops.

MUSCLE CAR

Mylo

Talk about getting your money’s worth. Your hard earned cash will get you a CD single with eight mixes on it! Now, this may be a little more laid-back that Mylo’s previous output, but don’t let that put you off because it’s a corker. There’s not really much more I can say for this so I’ll stop now and move on.