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Liquid Liquid - Album out 19th of May
22nd Apr 2008
Manhattan’s Liquid Liquid the quartet of
Scott Hartley Richard McGuire, Salvatore Principato and Dennis Young
effortlessly melded and shaped there own, very groovy, space. Loose but tight,
edgy and inviting, both dry and wet, the phrase Slip In And Out of
Phenomenon, the title of this retrospective collection - and the vocal
hook from their most infamous track Cavern – perfectly nails both
the sound and the sensation of listening to Liquid Liquid. Over little more
than 3 EPs in their lifetime Liquid Liquid rerouted the rythmns of the subway
and the steam of the city to some imagined African nighttime future.
Contemporaries were busy discoursing on the
Fourth World, or re-imaging ethnography for computers. Can had come close at
their most sensual but no one had sounded as direct, hotwired and funky as
Liquid Liquid. In the space and depth of their sound there was room not only to
move, but to get right down deep into it.
Orbiting around a core configuration of
drums, bass, marimba and percussion Sal Principato’s voice incanted and
chanted. One minute he’s reading out the formulae to surface tension - see Out
– or, as on Lock Groove he’s a ghost having a good time stuck in
an echo chamber. Either way he makes being disorientated sound like the best
fun in town.
As well as an intensity to the grooves that is very much of
its time – you can hear the group reaching for every note and beat – Liquid
Liquid were locked together by a sticky looseness - see Where’s Al?
- that is as head-nodding infectious now as it must have been
desirously strange at the time.
Cavern kicks off with what must be, by now, the world’s most famous
bassline. And thereby, via White Lines, Sugarhill business
practice, the birth of hip-hop and sampling, hangs a tale. Now a good twenty
five years after legal meltdowns, industry shutouts and bad deals; it’s the jaw
dropping elasticity and funkiness of Cavern that shine through,
one of the most remarkable tracks to ever be put on record.
Today Liquid Liquid’s legacy is everywhere.
The UK’s hippest club, Glasgow’s Optimo is named after track 13 of this CD, a
piece of music any DJ would kill to get their hands on as its skitters and
twitches its way across the dancefloor. Fellow NYC residents DFA resurrected
the uptight downtown funk of Liquid Liquid and contemporaries ESG in their
early productions and edits, whilst today’s vogue for live instruments in
‘balearock’ italo and electro club tracks means Liquid Liquid’s way of doing
things has come full circle. So its good news right? That the party’s starting
all over again.
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