Pigeon Funk
Self-Titled
(Proptronix/Onitor)
Out of all the releases that I've heard on the Proptronix label thusfar, this one by Pigeon Funk takes the cake. It's well-constructed and fun, and gosh darn if it doesn't make me want to put a little swerve in my hips. Considering the names behind the project, it should really come as no surprise, though, as Kit Clayton, Safety Scissors, and Sutekh have all created great work on their own. A true collaborative project, the release doesn't really sound particularly like the work of one person more than the others, but the fingerprints of all three artists appear and help guide it to a fairly cohesive whole.
The end result is 16 tracks and just about 50 minutes of glitchy micro house that skirts off into other genres for tracks here and there but mainly drops back into a warm groove of 4/4 beats, blurps and squiggles, and a great sense of humor. After a short opening track, the album starts off nicely with "Pigs On Fun," a track that stutters along before finally locking into a groove and kicking it with short melodic bursts. "Mocito" drops an even deeper low-end and litters the track with sprays of breakbeats, chopped vocal samples, and enough glitchery to keep your brain synapsis firing quickly.
"Pigeon Lips" takes things into a slightly different area with slightly more techy beat programming and a healthy dose of white noise while "Pombo Doente" breaks things down even further, running a spoken-word sample about pigeon sickness behind ever-changing layers of beat programming and other weirdness. In terms of pure dancefloor fun (or funk), things don't get much better than "Süsser Schlam." Starting out with a nicely German sounding minimal techno backbone, the track layers and builds into a galloping, squiggly treat. Heck, the trio even throws in some bent Bossa Nova on closing track of the release. In addition to the great music, there are a couple excellent videos on the disc as well. Fun funk you don't have to worry about stepping in.
Rating: 7.5
