ÿþReleased in 1994, "Old Codes New Chaos" was the fila shoes white first album of British electronic folk duo Fila Brazillia. Steve Cobby and David McSherry brought together electronica, ambient, techno, rock and funk in a way that had almost never been heard before, and as such, can be considered the grandfather's of downtempo in Great Britain. 20 years later, we have the release of the "20th Anniversary Edition", containing the 12 tracks from the original album and adding 4 new ones. A treasure for nostalgics looking to get back to the start of this sound. "Old Codes New Chaos" in its new anniversary production sounds quite smooth in comparison with later albums like "Maim That Tune" or "Power Clown", but it does provide a multifaceted impression of a sound that has lost none of its power even after 20 years
Those speech samples place it in an early Nineties framework and are every bit as effective as The Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds' Serratia Marcescans' mixes glittering ambient with the rambling reminiscences of a bunch of GIs fucked on acid. It's as brilliant as it sounds. Then tracks like The Light fila disruptor 2 womens of Jesus' and Pots & Pans' pick up the pace with some chunky grooves that would fit in well enough at any Ibiza beach-front cafe. In places this has a lolling, hyper-cool, chill-out groove, such as on the supreme trip hop departure The Sheriff'. In others it's up and in your face. But it's always funky and always supremely melodic& fila target a bit like a Sasha set on valium. In other words it's as essentially Balearic as a bottle of San Miguel outside Cafe Mambo.
All the more surprising, then that the album is made by a bunch of stoners from Hull who have never been to the White Island. Any Fila Brazillia album is worth buying, but if you can manage to track this down, this alone it is worth its weight in lbizan gold.Genres come, buzzwords go and styles fizzle and fade, but one thing that has remained constant in dance music's perpetual shape-shifting is Fila Brazillia. Retrospective' represents the very best of a musical partnership deserving a well-overdue pat on the back for its longevity and ability to give competition the slip fila slides by remaining elusively hard to classify.
And they did this without interviews, press photos or advertising no small feat in the pre-international net-work days.See, the thing is that Fila Brazillia remember that there have been many periods in history where pop music has managed to be both challenging and popular. It's their shared sense of hope, history and humour that inspired Fila to form their own twentythree label to release album seven in 1999, and has carried them through to the creation of Jump Leads, due out early in 2002.Same thing goes with Cobby and Fila's approach to DJ ing. Absorb their new Another Late Night mix CD which moves beautifully through the sounds of Marvin Gaye, Mr. Scruff, the Beta Band, Brian Eno, Kelis and others for a taste.
Like me, Cobby has little time for singularly minded DJs. "Too often it's like, We just want a load of jigsaw pieces that all fit together nicely. Give us the modular music,'" he sputters. "It's important for us to remember those tapes we did for our friends when we were growing up, that attitude, just that beautiful variety. Real people at home have got collections with lots of different things, but DJ culture suggests that everybody should be a specialist. I just find that turgid. I want to be excited and surprised and mystified by a DJ !"Not only do I think that this is Fila Brazillia's best album, it is also one of the best albums that I have ever heard.
The eclecticism and organic warmth of Fila Brazillia's electronica continue to amaze on Power Clown , one fila disruptor women's of their finest efforts to date. Laid-back jazz-funk grooves straight out of the '70s are the foundation of the record, but hints of Stevie Wonder-esque soul, hip-hop, bossa nova, ambient, spacey techno, house, minimalist electro, big-beat and trip-hop all pop up here and there, as do touches of ethnic percussion, acoustic guitar, saxophone solos, new age-y synth flourishes, and the occasional odd vocal sample or sound effect. What really pushes Power Clown over the top, though, is that the group maintains their focus throughout, never meandering and changing things up often enough to keep the grooves from becoming repetitive.