The Sound Of Silver album is already up there as an album of the year. If that wasn’t enough, here’s the ’45:33′ suite-mix previously available on i-tunes now thrust forth on vinyl and CD with three more tracks. A major bonus is that this remarkable set could be the best record you’ve heard all year, James Murphy wielding a veritable arsenal of instruments to create an electronic space symphony exploding with creativity and vision which somehow manages to work in a history of cutting edge New York music from the last 30 years. ’45:33′ is hugely-ambitious, coming in six parts starting with a Kraftwerk-like synth staircase before a classic New York house vocal outing which would’ve slaughtered the Paradise Garage. This glides into a deeply-hypnotic electro-minimal glitch-scape morphing into riotous funky space-disco before jazzy brass and robo-voices steer out to some hallucinogenic galaxy coming back to land with the serenely ambient closing section. Extra tracks: ‘Freak Out’/’Starry Eyes’ is a spectacular two-parter first planting P-Funk chorale over brassy percussive funk workout which even makes a drum solo sound cool before the second part’s intergalactic acid-hump revisits early 80s Danceteria with Nancy Whang’s spoken vocal. ‘North American Scum – Onanistic Dub’ hits a motoring, grainy future-skank before ‘Hippie Priest Bum-out’ takes it all out with a Latin-tinged kneesup splattered with noise and bass. An amazing joyride which, almost impossibly, seems to hit a perfect balance between New York’s ground-breaking musical past and dance music’s open-ended future. Despite the city itself being purged of dirt and street funk, the original downtown buzz survives in Murphy’s hands. Now it’s ready to take on the world.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
