Green Velvet doesn’ make much sense away from the 12 inch. Although second album Whatever redeemed its predecessor’ novelty with raw jacking anthems like Genedefekt and La La Land, this new album, while no less packed with potential club hits, just seems unnecessary outside the context of a DJ and a pair of turntables.
No UFOs, Overcome The Flesh, War on the Saints. All vintage Velvet. Electro bleeps and raw Chicago house, machine funk, wiggly acid, paranoiac beats and vocals. There’ no question that Jones does this stuff well. And in the “hot new track’ driven world of the DJ and record shop it’s no problem to release virtually the same track over and over, year after year, with subtly differentiated sounds and different words yelled through his battered headphones.
I’ve always wondered what it’d be like if Jones merged his two identities: Green Velvet’s raw jacking techno and Cajmere’ deep edgy garage. And it’s possible that is the objective here. The half-sung vocals on Temptation and the ejaculatory explosions of No Sex don’ approach Cajmere, but they are a clear deviation from Velvet’s chanted distortions. Another deviation is the bizarre liner notes that couple second-rate graphic design and damning bible verses. Strange, but musically the deal is hedonistic party tracks that would be truly wild in the hands of the right DJ, but not particularly rewarding at home in between dinner and a cup of tea.
Matthew Levinson
