Refrag - Light Metal

Hear The Track Here

I've never spent a month like this one and - as usual - I've found someone to blame. Refrag. It was all Desbo's fault. Now before that look of dazed stupefaction can curdle on your face, let me season the mix. Refrag is a name spoken in whispers around here, such is the power of his legend. When I reviewed Fill O p N Tube (September 2003) I wrote that 'it should come with a warning about blue touch paper and standing well back' but I had no idea what I was unleashing onto my poor long, suffering readers. The series of tracks he pumped out from 2003 to 2005 were little masterpieces of musical oddity, each one more complex than the previous one and definitely, infinitely weirder than anything out there at the time. This was at a time when Burp (an electronica experimentalist from Germany) was also active on the Soundclick site and between them they raised my expectations of what experimental should be to heights I haven't seen since their disappearance. Still no sign of Burp on the horizon so lets just clutch Refrag to out breasts and be thankful. On second thoughts, better not.

This is Refrag we are talking about and you have no idea where he's been lurking.

The last time I came across him, I stumbled on Cant Opener and Deligion (April 2008) and relished the opportunity of bringing Refrag to a whole new blog audience. They have since recovered of course, the only scars the experience leaves are all in the mind, or what's left of it. So, having waited an entire month to sample it, I was in a rare old mood for this track and it didn't disappoint. In the weirdness factor it was more Zappa than Beefheart, more Devo than The Residents and shows a welcome return to what used to be one of my favourite of all musical tricks; experimental electronica tracks with the propulsive kick of a runaway mule. Step forward, Mr Dynamite.

Who light's the blue paper and...

Refrag takes on Rocktronica (Ed: Whaddat?) and believe me that is a very good description of what's going to assail your ears if you take my advice and get to know this track, especially if Refrag is a new name to you. The fact that he was around back in the day and helped to create the scene most of us enjoy today should speak volumes about the quality of work you are likely to hear and Desbo doesn't disappoint. Well, it's not as ferociously funny as some of his tracks (he loves musical jokes, in the nicest possible sense) but its still as powerful as I ever heard him. The years have not dimmed him indeed. So, a bit of Alternative Metal, Refrag stylie? Too ******* right matey boy and I hope that this is the start of a new active period for one of Soundclick's living legends. (Ed: way, way, way over the top as usual Gilmore, but what the **** eh?)

MUST HAVE machine rock.