Damian Lazarus 'Suck My Deck' (Resist) Released 06/06/05

Damian Lazarus’ mix for Bugged Out! doesn’t just deserve your attention because of its hilarious title - rather it’s an unpredictable, slightly eccentric fusion of tunes that given time subtly works into your psyche. Lacking any definable ‘big room’ moments that often litter dance compilations, Lazarus instead draws upon a clutch of seemingly erratic sources from early eighties electro-pop pioneers to punk godfathers to a host of current underground electronic acts.

The pounding ‘Flash 1’ by Break 3000 gives things a nice ominous start. Working on many levels, deranged electronic reverberations, dark, creeping undertones and hands-in-the-air atmospherics slowly meld together. While Pier Bucci’s ‘Polaris’ with its deep beats and volatile walls of uncompromising noise continues the slightly schizo vibe. Yet it’s Cocoon resident Ricardo Villalobos’ remix of ‘One Of Our Submarines’ by new wave pioneer Thomas Dolby that really stands out in the early segue. The 1982 track is resurrected into a menacing and highly potent track of scatty beats coupled with Dolby’s almost nonsensical and unhinged vocal yells. Nice.

Later, Phonique’s ‘99 And A Half’ kicks starts a surge of head-**** electro tracks, with its feast of textured synthetic noises clashing with almost calypso beats. Purveyors of bleepy electro Freaks give us some, erm, bleepy electro with ‘Tweakers’, and Rayon’s ‘The Panther’ adds some exuberance with its almost eighties disco inspired grooves. It’s not until the aptly named ‘The Horn’ by Matt Tolfrey and Craig Sylvester comes along that more muscle is returned top proceedings, while the electro duo of 2004 Alter Ego bring things to a pummelling climax with ‘Beat The Bush’. The strange, yet oddly fitting inclusion of The Stranglers’ instrumental ‘Love 303’ highlights Lazarus unorthodox charm perfectly. Closing things, M83’s ‘Don’t Save Us From The Flames’ comes in its more clubby Superpitcher re-working. Despite remaining incredibly sanguine, it unfortunately lacks the ethereal euphoria of the original and doesn’t quite bring the album to a climax.

Truly best listened to in a murky back room, while ‘Suck My Deck’ is hardly exhilarating and never threatens to break into a sweat it importantly never meanders and remains equally intriguing after every listen. For any fans of slightly avant-garde dance music, this is delectable stuff.