Believe it or not, Pepe Deluxe is so much more than the outrageously cool single, ‘The Mischief Of Cloud 9’. It’s also so much more than the sum-total of their parts: James Spectrum (AKA Jari Salo) and JA-Jazz (AKA Tomi Paajaanen). So much more than samples.
And new album, ’Spare Time Machine’ is the timely blessed proof. Coiled brightly around the world’s largest reverbation unit and packed to the rafters with solid chunks of paisley-patterned funk, tracks like ‘Ms Wilhelmina And Her Way’ and ‘Go For Blue’ dazzle and burn with all the colours of ’60s psychedelia and the burly guitar thrust of ’70s prog-rock.
Check out ’Go For Blue’ — a blistering funk workout that taps as many genres, eras and styles as a hip-swivelling timelord. What’s it all about? Haven’t a clue. Sophisticated. Long-waited. Blood-related. Regal right. Makes us tight. Not purple, but blue tha knows. Probably best known for their outstanding use of samples as heard on their most familiar song ‘Before You Leave’, (you know the one which was used on the Levi’s ’Twisted’ jeans commercial and taken from their debut album ‘Supersound’ back in ’98). Comes backed by a cracking selection of remixes.
Part Syd Barret, part Jim Morrison, part James Brown, part Elvis, part Grateful Dead, the opiated thrash punk of ‘Pussy Cat Rock’ and the candyfloss Charlie of the gorgeous ‘Apple Thief’ and the mercurial ‘Lucky The Blind VS Vacuum Cleaning Monster’ define a parallel universe that makes ‘Life On Mars’ look like The Generation Game. Coming to a black hole near you: the album everyone is going to be talking about.