Our Aim Is to Satisfy Red Snapper
LikeMoloko, Anglo-American trio Red Snapper have been coming at dance music side-on since they formed in 1993, splicing soundtrack-influenced instrumentals to a distinctive vibrating double-bass sound then piling in dense hip-hop beats and tons of atmosphere--thinkMinguskidnapped byPublic Enemy. Their last album, 1998'sMaking Bones, contained the criminally overlooked gem "Image of You," and while there is nothing that scales as high here (you don't write too many songs like that, frankly) it still contains more invention and musical wit than a rackful of Ibiza compilations. From the leftfield funk of the David Essex sampling "Some Kind of Kink" (featuring junglist MC Det) to the pornographic bump and grind of "The Rough and the Quick," it is an album of dark, dangerous moods, explosive climaxes, and bottomless troughs--none deeper, though, than the closer, "They're Hanging Me Tonight." Red Snapper certainly put you through it.--Mike Pattenden