Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash
Jason Forrest's The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash is a Day-Glo burst of wacked-out samples, clattering percussion, sun-kissed melodies, and general electronic insanity. Unless you are the sourest of electronica purists, you can't help but be knocked out by the sheer amount of wit, skill, and joy on display here. Forrest has a knack for the perfect sample and a predilection for classic rock. So you get bits of Starship's "Jane," the Cars' "Let the Good Times Roll," Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets," and plenty more chopped and manipulated in strange and supercool ways. Which could come off as just cute and silly, but Forrest builds dazzlingly constructed tunes around them that would be swell even without the samples. The most impressive on the album do need their samples, however: "10 Amazing Years" folds, mutilates, and spindles the Who's "Who Are You" into a glittering cube of post-postmodern art that will leave you shaking your head in admiration. You could lump Forrest in with fellow sample-mad groups like the Avalanches, and that would make a lot of sense as they certainly share an everything-but-the-speaker-cables approach. Or with mash-up artists like Soulwax, though Forrest does more than just juxtapose. Whatever you do, make sure you track down The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash because it is the feel-good record of the summer of 2004. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi