Wednesday, February 22, 2012

JAM DESHO: DJ Pica Pica Pica - Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999

By Steve Jones.

The DJ mash-up album is a strange beast, and one I have never really found myself loving.  I enjoyed all of Girl Talk's releases when they came out, but I've never returned to them.  Even that excellent Kids & Explosions album Shit Computer was something I abandoned pretty quickly.  That said, my DJ mix of choice--the one I most consistently return to--belongs to DJ Pica Pica Pica, the alias of one Yamataka Eye.  This is the 1999 space adventure that is Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999.

If you're familiar with Yamataka Eye's main project, Boredoms, then you should have an idea of what to expect from this mix.  If you are not familiar with Boredoms (and you should be), then you should expect a psychedelic swirl of nearly every genre from the East to the West, mashed and mixed so as to soundtrack some alien dancefloor where extraterrestrials, having intercepted decades of radio broadcasts, have taken it upon themselves to create Earthen music from scratch.

Girl Talk this is not.  There are certainly many fun moments, such as layering Celtic fiddle on some submerged electric bass and a pounding dance beat. but such moments also lead into experimental vamping with a staccato voice sample dotted over a hellish roller coaster.  But the mix's willingness to be so strange and nearly undanceable is a large part of its appeal, and a large part of what makes it so distinct.

At 72 minutes, this album can be a chore, especially since none of the tracks work nearly as well on their own than they do together in this mind trip.  It's laborious, but worthwhile, especially for Boredoms fans.

Play Planetary Natural Love Gas Webbin' 199999 at your next party and weird out your friends!

(Steve Jones is notorious for weirding out his friends. You too can be one of them by following him on Twitter!)

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