UK-based Medicine8 are described as “a maverick alt acid house duo”; this leaves me in a bit of a tricky position. Let me lay my cards out. I know pretty much fuck-all about acid house and indeed house music in general; I know acid house had a big influence on the UK rave scene (my boss was into punk and psychobilly in the 80s and acid house and jungle in the 90s and it’s always cool and funny hearing him rant about the tunes he loves) and that like a lot of electronic music traces its lineage back to Chicago house. But that’s it, that’s all I know: if I were trying to impress you at a party I’d be a few seconds away from looking like a total tit.
Still, I’m game for trying to review just about anything sent my way, and I always dig hearing stuff I’m not used to. So here’s a review of Medicine8′s latest single from a guy who has no idea what’s going on in the house/acid house scenes, or what’s hip or what’s been done or what’s fresh or whatever.
A-side ‘Mercury Injection’ opens up with some pretty stern-sounding female vocals; it’s not long before a smooth beat hops in and browbeats you with its swagger. Yeah, swagger: there’s a confidence to this tune, and I can kinda visualise loving this beat when off my tits at a club (it does occasionally happen, though I usually get dragged to drum & bass or Wrong music nights). The choruses make use of a squawking siren of an effect; it’s abrasive and its iconic, I couldn’t tell you what it is though I’ve heard a similar trick in a bunch of other tunes.
B-side ‘R.M.P.O. (hip-house remix)’ is what originally attracted me to this single; it extensively samples ’Rock Music Pays Off’ by the one, the only Wesley Willis. Chances are that if you’re at all into outsider music or just unusual, idiosyncratic music you’ll be familiar with Willis: he was a musician (and painter) from Chicago. There are a few schools of thought about Willis; part of his cult following regards him as a sort of ‘savant-garde’ genius, and another part regards his solo material – almost invariably delivered over the same Casio keyboard demo track with the same vocal line and lyrical structure – as just about the funniest thing ever. Whatever you feel about Willis, it should be said that here Medicine8 have done his memory proud (he died back in ’03). The beat’s suitably quirky and Willis’ monotone vocals fit well. That said, in the choruses some high-pitched backing vocals are thrown in and I’m not sure how well they fit, but as I’ve already said I don’t know too much about the trappings, trends and iconography of acid house, so your mileage may vary.
I’m not sure how much justice the above has done to these two tracks but fortunately you can listen to them both at pretty much any of the links below, clicky clicky and discover how much you agree / how wrongheaded I am.
Medicine8 Facebook | Mercury Injection @ Soundcloud | R.M.P.O @ Soundcloud | Trash Mouth Recordings