Tres Demented: Shez Satan
Planet E

Shez Satan, a new four-track 12-inch from Detroit master Carl Craig under the self-explanatory Tres Demented guise, presents two new cuts, with the titular track in three versions (vocal, instrumental, beats). The vocal cut's a low-slung, pounding monster, with Craig drooling a bitter and twisted story about a predictably cruel femme fatale over a stripped-back groove pumped up with a fuzz bass line, dive-bombing synths, and Craig's falsetto chorus. If the vocals aren't to your taste, savour the seriously burning instrumental treatment and bask in the tasty keyboard hook that slithers in and around the synth stabs; the even more skeletal beats version is cool too, with the cut reduced to tribal beats and handclaps. More genius awaits with “Brainfreeze,” a dark B-side trip into crazed electro-acid with grunts and shouts echoing down the corridors before Craig's “You give me brain freeze, baby!” scream jumpstarts a grooving conga-laced coda.

July 2006