Well, since I already reviewed Tricky‘s haunting trip-hop classic from 1995 last year, I guess I can punch another dent into my fragile heavy-metal reputation by reviewing another trip-hop classic from the same era. The thing is, on August 19th, 1996, English trip-hop-meets-electronic-rock outfit SNEAKER PIMPS released their haunting debut full-length album, “Becoming X.” The band nailed it on their first attempt so brilliantly that the album soon went Gold and spawned several hit singles along the way. Then again, the band’s two creative masterminds, Liam Howe and Chris Corner, had been collaborating for years already under different project monikers, such as SLEEP FUSE and F.R.I.S.K. Had this duo not nicked a vocalist from a West Midlands punk band – Kelli Dayton from THE LUMIERES – the early history of trip-hop might look vastly different. Given the ravenous nature of the public demand for trip-hop in the mid-1990s, it was no surprise that everyone jumped on the bandwagon, but not many had the musical genius of this bunch. Ironically, with the new lineup came a new band name, SNEAKER PIMPS, which was derived from the famous story about THE BEASTIE BOYS sending someone from the band to hunt down old-school sneakers, due to them having no musical talent of any sort, or at least so the legend goes. If Howe‘s and Corner‘s previous ventures had been rather low-key, this debut full-length hit the jackpot almost immediately. Sure, it was released at the height of the trip-hop movement in the UK, but to give credit where it’s due, the songcraft on this beast grants the album a well-deserved place in the upper echelons of the genre. Even though these electronic nuggets could not be further from the standard heavy-metal oeuvre, they still kick some major ass. These songs resonate thick with the laissez-fair-devil-may-care aura of the disenfranchised slacker generation of the 1990s so brilliantly that it would be a shame not to show these bangers some love as they’re celebrating their 30th anniversary as we speak. This underrated gem finally needs to be discovered by the metal community as well.
The album comprises anthems for the said disenfranchised and disillusioned youth of the 1990s. The overarching mood is somewhat brooding, but crafted with a sly wink at the listener – hey, everything sucks but so what? The lyrics resonate with the air of that famously dry British humor, but with an update to the early Internet era when our hi-tech applications started to disconnect us. Hence, these bangers could fit the soundtrack of any Danny Boyle film! In fact, the lead single, “6 Underground,” was used quite prominently in the blockbuster movie The Saint, starring Val Kilmer, leading Danny Boyle to ask for a song to be included in his upcoming film A Life Less Ordinary (that song was not from the debut, though). Someone on Reddit once commented on this album by saying, “This album makes me want to crawl permanently into a cinnamon bun where the main ingredient is 1996.” I’m not entirely sure what that even means, but I totally agree. The lyrical stabs at the signs of the times hit the nail on the head. Well, of course they did it for me – I was in my early twenties at the time, too, watching as the soulless materialists of the Boomer generation were having a field day plundering the world. It was nigh impossible not to relate to the disillusionment conveyed by these lyrics, from the stab at familial hellscapes in “Low Place Like Home” to the somewhat sarcastic narrative of a socialite engaging in all sorts of risky shenanigans in the absolute standout track, “Post-Modern Sleaze.” The latter is not only the lyrical peak of the selection, but the music slaps every bit as hard: sexy hip-hop beats laced with some upright bass, acoustic guitar licks, and cinematic strings in the chorus as per the conventions of the genre. On this banger, the Southern Gothic aesthetic meets the urban chic of Bristol. The band did not actually come from the birthplace of the trip-hop sound, but their debut sounded like a close sonic cousin to those mid-1990s endeavors by MASSIVE ATTACK, Tricky, and the like. What makes SNEAKER PIMPS stand out from the rest is the lack of that somewhat paranoid, no doubt spliff-induced atmosphere. “Wasted Early Sunday Morning” is the only track that subtly dips its toes in that sort of hazy blur. Then, the Moog melody in “Tesko Suicide,” what with its vintage sci-fi overtones, could maybe be squeezed into a Tricky song, but the overall mood is nowhere near as paranoid as in those mid-to-late-1990s endeavors he released as a solo artist after leaving MASSIVE ATTACK.
There’s something cinematic, by default, in this type of trip-hop aesthetic. I reckon it stems in part from the use of movie samples. Here, “6 Underground” uses a sample from the motion picture soundtrack for the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. So, it kinda makes things come full circle, knowing that the said 1997 Val Kilmer flick featured this song – The Saint shares quite a lot in common with that blockbuster secret-agent franchise. Harkening back to the modus operandi of their earlier projects, Howe and Corner resorted to the use of samples in these songs quite prominently across the board; however, rather than using their own, custom-made loops and beats like before, cut-up snippets of commercial music, such as David Sylvian, Sandy Denny, and audio clips from movies were used to add a haunted and mysterious aura to the music. Actually, the track, “How Do,” is a cover version of “Willow’s Song” from the film The Wicker Man, renamed with written permission from Britt Ekland, the actress who sang the original.
Shortly after the release of this debut, SNEAKER PIMPS toured America, and the somewhat tension-filled venture created deep cracks between Dayton and the others. When the tour reached its end, the band temporarily split up, and when the band started to record their sophomore album, Dayton was out, and so was most of the mainstream appeal. If the band kicked off with a bang, their follow-up endeavors have largely gone under the radar of the general public. I must admit to having had a lengthy falling out with this band as well. In my books, Dayton‘s vocals were the secret ingredient that made the debut so damn good. Of course, I found out years later that 2002’s “Bloodsport” had some decent tracks, but it was still kinda missing something. More recently, this long-forgotten trip-hop veteran released a new album, “Squaring the Circle,” in 2021, and to my surprise, it sounded amazingly fresh and brilliant, although it resonated more strongly with the air of Chris Corner‘s solo stuff than SNEAKER PIMPS, to be honest. What the band created with their monolithic debut left a legacy that’s hard to match without that secret ingredient. On a peculiar side note, the debut’s snappy title, “Becoming X,” took a life of its own at some point, evolving into Corner‘s solo band – IAMX. While the music is way more electronic, bordering on industrial techno on occasion, there’s something similar in the underlying sentiment of the lyrics, but that’s a topic for another review altogether. I recently found out that Dayton has also embarked on a solo career, under the alias Kelli Ali, but I have not yet checked out her 2003 debut “Tigermouth.” Maybe I’ll just have to wait until it celebrates its 30th anniversary to drop you my verdict about it. In the meantime, I highly recommend lending an ear to this fine selection of postmodern sleaze from the mid-1990s.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Low Place Like Home
- Tesko Suicide
- 6 Underground
- Becoming X
- Spin Spin Sugar
- Post-Modern Sleaze
- Waterboy
- Roll On
- Wasted Early Sunday Morning
- Walking Zero
- How Do
Lineup
Kelli Dayton – vocals, guitars
Chris Corner – guitars, keyboards
Liam Howe – production, keyboards, guitars, drums, samples, percussion
Joe Wilson – bass, keyboards
Dave Westlake – drums, programming
Ian Pickering – lyrics, keyboards
Label
Clean Up Records
Links
https://www.sneakerpimpslegacy.com
