It’s been alleged that the six men charged with licensing offences following an illegal rave in a Pembrokeshire village over the bank holiday weekend had been spurred on by the release of Herve’s ‘Ghetto Bass 2’ – a riotous collection of buzz-saw beats, fidgety chopped up vocals and more sudden changes and surprises than an entire season of 24. It’s big, it’s bright, it’s fun it’s funky, and its totally tropical 34 tracks have been hammered into an exhausting 2 CD mix package featuring old and new favourites like Tim Deluxe, Four Tet, Joy Orbison, Max Morrell, Nneka, Hot City, Cassius, High Rankin and the Count and Sinden.
Herve, aka Joshua Harvey, one of the recent leading lights of British club culture has been turning out material under a slew of improbable names for the last five years: Count of Monte Cristal, Voodoo Chilli, Action Man, Dead Soul Brothers, Speaker Junk, Young Lovers. You can see the resurrection theme deveoping already.
You know the drill by now and ‘Ghetto 2’ doesn’t waver from it: disc one is fat, fierce and frenetic and disc two offers more room to breathe. Of course, anything of this nature is going to be nigh on impossible to quantify in the cold light of day when all manner of domestic obligations are there to divert and a sweaty old shirt and tie combination occupy a place where by rights your UV cyber clubwear should be.
Dig out your neon tutu, your fancy hold-ups and your fluffy bra and get to it. And all you girls out there do the same.