Raving techno beat silliness still reigns supreme in the hearts of some, and thanks to Marijke Jorritsma and Gregory Zifcak it isn't hard to see why. With the help of some old synthesizers and other modified equipment, these two are breathing life back into the acid and ecstasy fuelled heart of dance music.
Tigerbeat6
With only two releases on Tigerbeat6 and one on Community Library; the duo of Jorritsma and Zifcak don't have an expansive discography and that's good news. After hearing Sticky Tapes it's likely that a buying frenzy will well up in almost anyone's blood simply because their music is so much fun. Released in the middle of 2005, I didn't see this album get much press, either because I'm blind or because at the time Sticky Tapes sounded dangerously like kitsch. Contained inside is all the wiggling, beeping, flat out acidic techno music I could ever ask for. From the get go Eats Tapes lays down the four-on-the-floor "boom boom" beat and begin layering bits of melody and scattered percussion all over it. There's nothing progressive or earth-shattering about it, but it is a ton of fun. By eschewing all the unnecessary vocal samples and drug-related bullshit that gets tied so intimately to techno, Jorritsma and Zifcak get rid of all the annoying facets that (rightfully) gave techno such a bad name near the end of its popular life. All that's left are instrumental tracks that sound like the out of control and hallucinating child of Devo and Michael Winslow from Police Academy and Spaceballs (you know, the guy that made all the sound effects with his mouth?).
With shifting melodies and crazy percussive samples galore, the only thing I can complain about is that after nine tracks of the same bass drum part (boom boom boom boom), I wish that the band would have focused on their drum parts as much as their synth parts. There's enough happening at one time for me to forget about the incessant thump of that bass drum, but the album doesn't stand up to repeat listens because of it. Some variety in the groove department wouldn't have hurt at all, but with that thought aside, it's hard not to have fun when Sticky Buttons is spinning.
The overall mood of the album is bouncy, fun, and outright goofy. The band's best quality may well be their lack of pretentiousness. There's nothing here but rapid-fire synthetics and mechanoid strobe lights; more than enough to have a good time to. Kid 606's knob-twiddling hand makes an appearance on three tracks, though his love for skipping percussion sadly doesn't enter the picture. Eats Tapes are sure to release more music, their style is too infectious not to catch on. In the mean time, try tracking down everything else in their discography. I get the feeling that a lot of it will be hard to find, soon.
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