Search - Liquid Todd :: Action

Any DJ can make people dance, but few are able to sustain a groove that incites dance-floor utopia. At it's best, this utopia exists beyond fatigue, inspiring the libidos of lovers and strangers alike. It's a sublime and unfortunately rare state, and one that Liquid Todd's Action manages to sustain for much of its running time. A veteran fixture of weekend dance-party radio in the Northeast, LT has a blast cutting loose on his first full-length CD. Fatboy Slim's "Sho Nuff" slips a grainy vocal sample around what sounds like a high-pitched, electronically filtered musical saw, which then dissolves into the old-school vocoder treatment of the ELO-esque "Every 1's a Winner." The effect on one's need to cut a rug is immediate. Elsewhere, the acid-disco of Les Rythmes Digitales swoops into a breakbeat, scratch-house mix from Dub Pistols, with a forlorn-sounding trumpet riff providing the lone tune for a wall of booming, bass-laden samples. Though things calm down as the beats become a bit weary, they pick right back up with a speedy, inventive Chemical Brothers track, "Morning Lemon." Liquid Todd mixes patiently, adding layers of rhythm, giving no pause, brutally pulling away at the last moment before collapse. After a brief cut to half speed, the Jungle Brothers suddenly crank up the bpms a notch as they rap over a breakneck freestyle thump. Overwhelmingly, a sweaty, fun debut. --Matthew Cooke