Review: Zap Meemees / Satanicpornocultshop

Self-described as "Puzzling hip hop with a surrealistic touch and new technology know-how," Satanicpornocultshop craft light glitchy beats through innumerable sampled songs and sounds. The amalgam of samples, many pulled from the greatest depths of pop music, may remind some of Kid 606's The Action Packed Mentalist Brings You The Fucking Jams, but unlike that glitch pioneer, Satanicpornocultshop are not out to test your ears. Add in a little bit of DJ Spooky-esque theory and a dash of Go! Team-like fun, and you have Zap Meemees (streaming here).

Frank Stofore, of Sonore Records, writes, "Why make new music when everyday the industry discharges a discontinuous flow of spoiled idols and reanimated heroes? Re-using fragments from this huge musical garbage dump, it is possible to create new meanings and suddenly catch a glimpse of our modernity and its excesses." When the various sounds crash into one another, they give a pretty clear indication of how the outside world views American culture. The songs that are born, however, from this crashing of samples do not contribute to a greater excess. They instead create something that is pleasurable, and sometimes beautiful. Zap Meemees opens with a cover of "Blue Velvet" that David Lynch would certainly appreciate. (Here, it is called "59,054,087" - a reference to the number of Americans who voted for Bush in 2004). Singer Lisa's voice is manipulated, often being cut off and reversed, but the song never ceases to be pretty. The album returns to this song at the end before descending into its most brilliant moments - a computer voice drowning out the sound of John Lennon's "Imagine" asks "Do you hate America? Do You want to kill the president?" before colliding with the hyper-masculine sounds of Korn and Limp Bizkit, while Bush speaks about defending freedom. It's cynical, critical, hopeful, challenging, complex, deep and fun, while showing new possibilities for pop music.

3.5 (out of 5)