Spencer Parker: Chiho
Buzzin' Fly

Already heard on the recent Buzzin' Fly: 5 Golden Years In The Wilderness comp, Spencer Parker's “Chiho” gets its own moment in the spotlight on this stand-alone release with the high-velocity original given the A side and two Jerome Sydenham treatments the B.

A bleepy martial goosestep inaugurates the “Chiho” original before a racing hi-hat pattern, bass throb, and repeating handclaps help it achieve liftoff. Though the tune's ten minutes in length, it's already flying by the two-minute mark and Parker continues to stoke its feverish broil from then onwards. The incessantly hammering four-note motif nails itself into your skull while the minimal techno pulse burns below (and don't miss the close where Parker neatly strips the track back to its skeleton). Anyone thinking the original might have posed an indomitable challenge to a remixer can think again ‘cos Sydenham slays it. In the seven-minute version, the New Yorker lays into it with an ultra-tough slam that transforms the original into a first-class club stormer replete with drop-outs and heavyweight stabs. Apparently Sydenham's christened his hard and brutal style “Blacktro” but it's fabulous no matter what it's called. The slightly shorter “Blacktro Dub” treatment works a steady house broil too though this time dub production treatments (e.g., stabbing chords swelling into reverberant waves) multiply exponentially the dizzying potential of the other two versions. Quite frankly, “Chiho” kind of gets lost when placed amidst so much other great material on the three-disc collection but presenting it this context invests it with new life.

November 2008