"Nuts!"

"peaches shaped like donuts, split and juicy, just right"

they could have been an English Avalanches

nothing else quite as magic as that in their slender discogs, but this one is a blast



on the flip




the only one of their label-mates who came close




stuff i wrote (for Spin, in 1998) about these dudes under the dubious rubric of "intelligent big beat" -

Even as Bolshi tracks adhere to Big Beat's party-hard line (the music's "got to

make you move and make you smile," says label founder Sarah Francis), the best

of the label's otuput glistens with an inventiveness and delightful quirkiness

that's scarce in this increasingly witless genre. Take Rasmus, a Sweden-born but

London-based sampling wizard skilled at meshings seemingly incompatible elements

into a funktional rhythm-engine. "Afro (Blowin' In the Wind")--the highlight of

Rasmus debut album Mass Hysteria-- rubs a slice of conscious rapper Spearhead's

basketball-in-the-park reminiscences and some scratchadelic frenzy [illegible].

This messthetic of incongruity is something Rasmus gleaned from 'ardkore

producers like Sonz of A Loop Da Loop Era and Jonny L.

Black sheep of the Bolshi roster, Beachcomas are even more into

mix-and-mismatch. The partnership of programmer Matt Austin and

sample-finder/"chaotic influence" Tony Freeman, Beachcomas first scored on the

Big Beat scene with their Bolshi debut "It's Eggyplectic", a glorious

squelch-funk surge of jazzy keyboard licks, burbling clavinets, and fierce acid

stabs. But the duo really started to live up to their scavenger name--inspired

by the surreal sight of a bed washed up on the mudbanks of the Thames--with

"Donuts," an off-kilter delight that became the title track of the first Bolshi

compilation (where you can also find "Eggyplectic"). Its unlikely constituents

include quaint, regionally-inflected English voices, taped from a TV gardening

program, talking about "peaches, split and juicy", "strawberries," and "nuts and

medleys"; the panting of their pet dog, who refused to bark as desired; and a

clipped guitar riff stolen from the B-side of the Mekons first single, "Never

Been In A Riot". This influence from an earlier phase of indie-dance

crossover--the punk-funk of Delta 5 and Gang of Four--carries through to the Pop

Group sample on Beachcomas' latest EP for Bolshi, the disappointingly ungainly

"Big Tuddy Session". Although I could swear it's "Where There's A Will There Has

Got To Be A Way" (the Pop Group track on the split-single with The Slits's "In

The Beginning There Was Rhythm") that gets sampled on "Waiting For The Beach"

(from the second Bolshi EP, Planet Thanet; also available on Donuts 2).

Beachcomas say it's actually a Diana Ross loop, combined with rooster noises

generated from rubbing Styrofoam together. Either way it's a killer tune, if too

rhythmically eccentric to do well on the Big Beat circuit. Right now the

Beachcomas are the group who could do most with the album format ("Donuts" was

one of the most oddly poignant tracks I heard last year, strangely reminding me

of A.R. Kane's second album) but the artist least likely to get the chance.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^