Not a bad pedigree. Simeon Lister, sometime boss of Twentythree Records and thrill-seeking horn player with Heights Of Abraham loosens his flairs with Fila Brazilia mainstay, Steve Cobby and builds upon the nu-jazz and latin improvisations that saw them ride a rich seam of soundtrack success (CSI, Sex In The City and cult cinema films like Dogtown and Riding Giants), with ‘Put Me On A Planet’, a spicy sci-fi hotch-potch of dancefloor grooves, comfortable vibes and kinky Blaxpolitation funkery, all brought about under the pairs’ new J*S*T*A*R*S moniker.
Just another brew of quirky electronica? Well yes, but that’s no bad thing, although there is a growing tendency for fairly casual collaborations and extended record parties lapsing into arbitrary and insubstantial jams like Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid’s ‘interesting’ but slightly spurious quirky curio, the ‘Exchange Sessions’. But there’s none of that here, I’m pleased to say, just a mad dog wall-to-wall canvass of shape-shifting rubbery bass, Starsky and Hutch guitars, bad-ass horn sections and Cuban-heeled space-aliens larking around on acid beneath the purr of a Spanish Harlem.
The best tunes are all up front, of course; the warm, easy vibes of ‘That Hefty Place’ with its kick-box percussion and balmy keys, the car-chasing daft funk workout of ‘Tripping The Light Fantastic’, and the Oxygen high of the sultry ‘Spanish Hustle’ whilst tracks like ‘Is It Pepper’ and ‘Positronic’ offer an entertaining techno respite, even if their rather frazzled, genre-hopping cores aren’t really quite as satisfying.
Imagine Joe Meek and Basement Jaxx hurtling round the galaxy in a modified Ford Gran Torino and looking for a place to land. It’s like that. Kind of.