His first for Brighton’s Skint Records, Mr Nasty has timed his zombie flesh-eating breakbeat just nicely to coincide with the monster-mashing assault of the Jaxx’s hamma-house release, ‘Kish Kash’. And with Halloween just around the corner grabbing hold of a copy of the eerie and futuroid ‘Bring Me The Head Of…’ release at least makes a lot more sense than ducking for apples ever did.
Whereas the Jaxx have anchored their own brand of horror within a faintly gothic and Germanic sense of antiquity, Freq has employed Gorillaz animator Jamie Hewlitt and his company, Zombie Flesh Eaters to mould a more avant-garde and ‘toon-like’ visual identity around the mesh of monster breakbeats, sub bass and shredded electro. And like the music, it’s a little freaky, a little industrial and more than a little nasty.
Featuring guest contributions from the hippin’ and a hoppin’ Roots Manuva, Kovas and Yolanda as well as vocals from Rodney P, ‘Bring Me The Head Of Freq Nasty’ is a difficult tail to pin. Part techno, part drum and bass, part electro, part hip-hop – it’s a veritable urban nightmare. Listening to it is a little like being bombarded with the torrent of media stimuli in a metropolis like Japan, in that it’s a full on, non-stop circuit of irregular styles, irregular pulses and alien noise signals.
Best of the bunch are the punchy ‘Come Let Me Know’, the raga, hip-hop electric ghostdance, ‘Boomba Clat’ and the frazzled breaks and beats of ‘Punkadelic’.
Hard and uncompromising, certainly, but always cerebral.