Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Adamski

  • Liveandirect [MCA, 1990] C+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Liveandirect [MCA, 1990]
Acid house isn't stupid music; it isn't even bad music. It's music for some other species--with the Other, as always, relative to where one's Self happens to hang out. Singerless and virtually wordless, undeviating in its "textless" functionalism, it's impervious to consumer guidance: nobody who doesn't dance to it knows it exists, and nobody who does is gonna believe an alien like me. Nevertheless, it does exist, so say this: the best analogy isn't disco (though cf. MFSB and the Salsoul Orchestra) or dub or new age. It's fusion--beyond virtuosity, yet hopelessly in love with the almighty keyb. Though this guy isn't as weird and tricky as 808 State or A Guy Called Gerald at their fleeting best, his bottom seems suited to survival in an oxygenated environment, and once in a while he surges into something resembling life. There's the review. Now you can talk about it at parties. C+