Fila Brazillia

Fila Brazillia, the prolific duo of British djs Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, debuted with the album Old Codes New Chaos (Pork, 1994), a pioneering work of electronic dance music that was recorded over a period of four years.
Their computer-based collage of dub, electronic funk, house beats, acid-jazz and trip-hop yields: the rollicking locomotive of Mermaids, enhaced by recurring wordless soprano singing; the feverish and exotic, Talking Heads-influenced, shuffle Brazilification (the standout); The Sheriff, nine minutes of syncopated Afro-funk littered with synth sounds; and the 19-minute juggernaut Fila Funk, a rather monotonous jam of deep house with samples of vocals and funky organ that finally African tom-toms propel to new heights. The album is sometimes frustrating. If you can go past the first three minutes, The Light of Jesus boasts interesting vocal manipulation but mostly the piece is directionless. Strange Thoughts sets in motion a booming rhythm with warped sound effects but fails to expand on those intuitions. The nine-minute Pots & Pans kicks out with "motorik" exuberance but then gets bogged down by repetitive vocoder singing, eventually replaced by African choral chanting.

Maim That Tune (Pork, 1995) removed part of the hedonistic element from their fusion music, leaving mostly a skeletal and austere anatomy. Dave Yang & Steve Yin De-Swish T' Swish is emblematic of the new downtempo atmosphere with jazzy organ and funky tempo. The nine-minute A Zed and Two L's is a series of variations around an African litany, from anemic sloppiness to lively dance via psychedelic haziness. Leggy weds psychedelic reverbs and mechanical funk beats. The ten-minute At Home In Space open like a bucolic orchestral intermezzo and then indulges in a protracted space-funk jam, which is however the most representative of this album's approach. Louder echoes of Sly Stone's psychedelic rock surface in the nine-minute 6ft Wasp, a monotonous repetitive locomotive. The feverish breakbeat elegance of the eleven-minute Slacker stands out. Both exotic and neurotic, it approaches the manic trance of Steve Reich's minimalism before plunging into aquatic dancefloor bliss. Dub and blues inflections shape the psychedelic atmosphere of Harmonicas Are Shite, another standout. Extract Of Pineal Gland feels like a slow-motion version of a southern blues-rock ballad. The nine-minute beat-less Subtle Body, whose most prominent sound is of tinkling bells, closes the album in a Zen atmosphere (a third standout). Therefore the album runs the gamut from (relatively traditional) beat-heavy dance music to subliminal ambient music.

The EP Sycot Motion (Mindfood, 1996) feels like a collection of four leftovers, but at least the frantic batucada of Blind In One Eye Laying Down the Law on the Lard and the lively rocking Half' N' Half are worthy detours from their trademark fusion.

Mess (Pork, 1996) features some of their best numbers: the ten-minute ambient raga Soft Music Under Stars, the piano-based Brazilian pop of The Last of the Red Hot Brethren, the jazzy jam On Yer Haunches, the latin anthem Wavy Gravy, the Shaft-like funk music of Big Saddle, the cyclic chill-out music of Space Hearse, the soulful crescendo of Hairy Insides, the hysterical acceleration of Blood, But half of the album is (dancefloor) filler. And even the good tracks hang to very frail pretexts.

Black Market Gardening (Pork, 1996) displays larger doses of jazz in Obrigado, a duet of jazz drumming and electronic moaning, and especially Snake Ranger, a comatose jazz dialogue between saxophone and flute, as well as in the lively Caribbean-tinged jazz jam Little Dipper. However, the real innovation is in the rhythms: Fila Brazillia leave behind ambient or psychedelic trance and embrace full-body dance. The festive fanfare of Blubber Plinth rides an intricate and aggressive beat. The beats get even frantic in Butter My Mask, which seamlessly samples Spyro Gyra's Opus D'Opus and the Bar-Kays' Move Your Boogie Body . Wigs Bifocals and Nurishment, which samples Herbie Mann's Beautiful Love, is almost a tribute to the funky jams of the disco era. The exotic element is prominent in the flute-dominated nine-minute Onc Monganni. However, the newly found energy is a mixed blessing. Snake Ranger is what they are really best at: noir atmospheres.

Luck Be A Weirdo Tonight (Pork, 1997) continued the artistic decline. Most compositions feel like leftovers or drafts, either because they sound like repetitions or because they sound unfinished. Undebiably, the duo is experimenting new tricks: Hells Rarebit has enough verve to justify its seven minutes, and Van Allens Belt is a motorik experiment that transfers Neu's neurosis into orchestral grandeur over the course of ten engaging minutes (the standout). Elsewhere they slump into a laid-back atmosphere: Apehorn Concerto and Heat Death of the Universe are lounge music for the drum'n'bass generation. The album is certainly more eclectic than their habit, but this is not necessarily good news.

Power Clown (Pork, 1998) abandons the experiment to focus on their "sellable" goods. The Latin-funk fusion of Bovine Funk and Bumpkin Riots feels terribly dejavu. The more original Throwing Down A Shape (almost a Brazilian version of Jon Hassell's fourth-world music) offers just a glimpse of what could be done. Instead they seem more interested in crafting shorter light-weight compositions for rapid consumption like Here Comes Pissy Willy. The eight-minute Feathery Legs is facile bombast for the dancefloor.

The duo was looking for a way out of obscurity on A Touch Of Cloth (Tritone, 1999), investing quite a bit in oddly funny and energetic numbers like the catchy and upbeat The Bugs Will Bite, the clownish Ridden Pony and the swinging Snakeskin Bib. The mellow jazz-hop of Airlock Homes isn't any better. The eight-minute Leonids is a compromise between the "poppy" side and the "jazzy" side but the result is still uninspiring. Their worst album yet.

Brazilification (Kudos, 2000) collects remixes of the previous five years.