Tally Ho
Named for a Robert Crumb character, Wagon Christ is a combo of crackpot British tinkerer and ingenious sound sculptor, a jungle and trip-hop outcast jamming with a juvenile, sex-crazed clown. Pals with fellow lunatics Aphex Twin (Richard James) and Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson), Wagon Christ (Luke Vibert) is nobody's sampling fool. Rather than use the "Apache" or "Amen" loop for the zillionth time, he creates stuttering beats and surreal string arrangements from dilapidated funk and '60s orchestral honchos Arthur Lyman and Serge Gainsbourg.Tally Ho!could be heard as an orchestral-jungle joke, but deeper listening reveals more than jungle's tired dance-floor demeanor. Christ weaves friendly organs, harrumphing Humpty Dumptys, balmy strings,Mad Maxtechno, and horror-movie samples together like Lawrence Welk dropping acid with Flavor Flav. "Memory Towel" recalls a Disneyesque nightmare, "Lovely" combines cooing Caribbean females with rubbery, roller-rink ska, "Juicy Luke Vibert" lampoons a lurid sex act for one.Tally Ho!--better to fungle in the jungle than dance with the dead.--Ken Micallef