Thunderheist

March 23, 2009

Heist was already a cool word. But put Thunder in front of it, and Thunderheist (TH) becomes some kind of übercool. It happened to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of ‘Cats’; someone put Thunder in front of an otherwise lifeless, corporate title and presto! One iconic cartoon show. See? Actually, that doesn’t apply to Thunderheart. Or Thundercats.

Released on Ninja Tune’s Big Dada label, Canadian duo Isis and Grahmzilla have crafted their own brand of electro-rap sleaze. It’s akin to listening to Missy Elliott freestyling with Salt-N-Pepa in 1986, but with the lyrical sauce of 2009. Truth is, though you’ve heard music a bit like this in the charts before, I’d compare TH to a digital postman: a seemingly conventional, everyday workhorse -- but dressed like Grace Jones and shovelling thick packets of sex through your door. If you’ve ever seen an episode of ‘The Wire’, I’d expect TH to be playing at Avon Barksdale’s strip club. Getting the picture? Yeah, good, innit?

From the off, ‘Sweet 16′ drops us into the dirty disco world of dirty dance and dirty talk, where little girls party in a big girls world. Though a cautionary tale of underage sex, it’s incredibly appealing (which I’m guessing is the point), especially with its singalong “Tap tap tap tap tap the booty” chorus. Just listening to the track makes me feel I’m in serious danger of committing a deeply illegal act. If you’ve not been locked up by track two, ‘Nothing to step to’ finds Isis taking her cue from Rakim, pushing you further into a world of sleaze and sweat to supremely danceable effect. With its floating analog synth lines, stomping percussive march, and perfumed vocal hooks, it’s pretty irresistible stuff.

The ravey ‘Jerk it’ features on the soundtrack to The Wrestler and can be heard in a scene with the delectable Marisa Tomei. The song’s video, however, stars a woman holding a live cock(erel). I can’t work it out. Can you?

‘LBG (Little Booty Girl)‘ is one of the best tunes on here. With a bassline similar to that found on Dead Prez classic ‘Hip-hop’, Isis even quotes from it with a slight change: “One thing ’bout music, when it hits you feel no pain, especially in the bank when you know you gettin paid”. It’s slick electro complete with 808 sounds and a vocal delivery bitten fresh out of Kanye’s heartbroken corpse.

Sickeningly, there is little let-up in the album, with ‘Bubblegum’ enticing the listener to “Get ya back up off the wall, move sum’tin!” It’s not an album for a Sunday morning -- unless you’ve not found your home yet. Naughty you. Maybe you’ve been asking where the afterparty at? Well that’s the question moodily posed asks over the dense, rolling bass of ‘The Party after’. Do these Canadians never sleep? No -- sleep -- till -- Toronto?

Of course, no electro-inspired album would be complete without a vocoder. Thankfully, Grahmzilla drops one on the appropriately titled ‘Do the right thing’ which will surely have you pulling out a robot to shame Peter Crouch. Well, that’s not difficult.

TH have gifted us a great album: perfect for the club, the afterparty and the stripclub. Expect to hear it everywhere well into 2009 and beyond.