DJ Spooky and Scanner are both gabber about communication. Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) investigates how it is that anyone can understand anyone else, how language works and how we frame our world; Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) eavesdrops on cellphone communications and reconfigures the recorded conversations into art installations. So you'd expect a collaboration between these two receivers to be lengthy, abstract, and probably academic to some degree.
Luckily, you'd be wrong. This soundclash isn't featherweight, either; both parties have reined in their tendencies to enter into discourse and predication, and instead concentrated on substantial illbient grooves. Of course, Spooky can't resist dropping in a few ounces of meta-hip-hop and Scanner lets us sneak a listen to someone's lurid phonecall, but by and large, The Quick and the Dead is a chat between old friends rather than a rambling sermon.
Beginning with low-end frequencies and the gurgling sounds of a industrial-sized bong ("Journey"), the pair invite Freight Elevator Quartet cellist Rachael Finn to play on "Guanxi", framing her pizzicato snaps in a very Durrutti Column setting. "Ngugi" rattles and shakes on strange percussion and sirocco breezes, before a Thomas Köner-like ground wobbles and distorts the foundations. "Synchronism 2" recalls early Wordsound releases like Dubadelic's Bass Invaders with its dub-cavern bass and crumpled, collapsed keyboard stabs. Here, it's hard to tell who's influencing who-- unlike some collaborations, The Quick and the Dead is a true fusing of talents as opposed to a convenient marketing ploy (selling two artists on the same disc to sell twice as many copies) or a call-and-response routine (like Scanner's collaboration with Signs ov Chaos).
The Quick and the Dead is the first in Sulfur's Meld series and, if the consistency and relevance of this debut are maintained, this series should be as vital as Fatcat's Split 1-8 series. Miller and Rimbaud have kept to-the-point and chosen not to waste words. So following their shining example, I won't either: Purchase with confidence.
