CURTIS CHIP - Eating Paste

For those who like their electronic music ‘apeshit’, welcome to Curtis Chip. Chip’s first full-length album features a re-release of his 12” single Eating Paste, plus remixes, new material, and a golden oldie from his past.

From virtually the first note to the last, Chip and his cohorts delight in shredding noise and mashing up sound until it spews between the cracks of the textured rusty beats that underpin every track. Eating Paste (complemented by two remixes here) opens the disc with a carnival-type sequenced melody, before it regurgitates itself, spilling its guts messily onto the dancefloor. There’s obviously a playful sense of humour in operation here, one that doesn’t carry the same sort of bighead self-indulgence of Squarepusher perhaps. However, when all is said and done, Eating Paste (the album) still cannot help but frequently irritate, as it's written to a formula that is too prevalent for its own good. Sometimes less is more.

It takes a remix, Larvae, to give Chips bewildering psycho babble some much needed direction on the enjoyable Overeating Mix of the title track, and likewise Enduser on the Could Be Real Mix of Happy Days. Then it’s back to Mr Chip, and the 46 second The Super Secret, which sounds like an argument between two fax machines. Lets not get all arty farty, whatever way you want to dress it up, this sort of IDM (Illogical Dance Music) will always be dreary and pointless filler. However, occasionally Chip gives us a break and notches up a gem, although the remixers make a much better job of interpreting his ideas than he does, which I’m sure wasn’t part of his great plan. Xanopticon do it again with a stomping mix of the final track That’s Not It At All.

I’m afraid that without the remixes, this would have been a dead duck; but strangely enough - with them it’s a bewildering, complex, bizarre cornucopia of ideas and rhythms – with some hidden melodies thrown in. It's so rare to find a remix album where the contributors actually enhance the original music and make the CD worth investigating – but don't take my word for it, read a few more reviews before you gamble.



	CURTIS CHIP - Eating Paste
	6.7
	Smalltown Supersound ~ STS070CD ~ February 2005
	For those who like their electronic music ‘apeshit’, welcome to Curtis Chip. Chip’s first full-length album features a re-release of his 12” single Eating Paste, plus remixes, new material, and a golden oldie from his past. From virtually the first note to the last, Chip and his cohorts delight in shredding noise and mashing up sound until it spews between the cracks of the textured rusty beats that underpin every track. Eating Paste (complemented by two remixes here) opens the disc with a carnival-type sequenced melody, before it regurgitates itself, spilling its guts messily onto the dancefloor. There’s obviously a playful sense of humour in operation here, one that doesn’t carry the same sort of bighead self-indulgence of Squarepusher perhaps. However, when all is said and done, Eating Paste (the album) still cannot help but frequently irritate, as it's written to a formula that is too prevalent for its own good. Sometimes less is more. It takes a remix, Larvae, to give Chips bewildering psycho babble some much needed direction on the enjoyable Overeating Mix of the title track, and likewise Enduser on the Could Be Real Mix of Happy Days. Then it’s back to Mr Chip, and the 46 second The Super Secret, which sounds like an argument between two fax machines. Lets not get all arty farty, whatever way you want to dress it up, this sort of IDM (Illogical Dance Music) will always be dreary and pointless filler. However, occasionally Chip gives us a break and notches up a gem, although the remixers make a much better job of interpreting his ideas than he does, which I’m sure wasn’t part of his great plan. Xanopticon do it again with a stomping mix of the final track That’s Not It At All. I’m afraid that without the remixes, this would have been a dead duck; but strangely enough - with them it’s a bewildering, complex, bizarre cornucopia of ideas and rhythms – with some hidden melodies thrown in. It's so rare to find a remix album where the contributors actually enhance the original music and make the CD worth investigating – but don't take my word for it, read a few more reviews before you gamble.