The Don of 1980’s dance music returns. Famous for cramming up to 70 samples into his party tunes, Tim Simenon shows up with all own material. You like Hot Chip? Then this is just the album for you.

Simenon was part of the holy trilogy of UK artists who pushed the sampling craze onto mainstream dancefloors back in 1987: Bomb The Bass (’Beat Dis’), M/A/R/R/S (’Pump Up The Volume’) and S’Express (’Theme From S’Express’).

The overriding influence on Simenon was Old Skool Hip Hop culture, particularly scratch DJs use of snippets from old Funk records to build a beat for their rappers. The name Bomb The Bass comes from the Hip Hop term for spraying a tag on a subway train or other public surface where it can be seen by competing gangs - bombing. So the name describes Simenon’s style of bombing a steady bass line with some samples to make up a track.

Bomb The Bass tapped once again into the Zeitgeist with ‘Bug Powder Dust’ in 1994, which enjoyed heavy dancefloor rotation on the burgeoning Big Beat scene in a remix by the fledgling Chemical Brothers. After a follow-up album (’Clear’) bombed, Simenon left the stage to focus on producing other artists, such as Depeche Mode. ‘Future Chaos’ is his first full length studio album in 13 years.

It’s arguably more rounded than any of Simenon’s earlier albums. Bomb The Bass somehow was always more of a singles act. This time there’s a good range of songs and no obvious fillers.

Watch Bomb The Bass’ ‘Butterfingers’ On YouTube

What’s most striking is that Simenon has turned his back on samples. At a time when x-th generation sample merchants like Mark Ronson celebrate mainstream success, Simenon rolls back into town with a totally different game.

‘Future Chaos’ is a totally hand-made affair, played largely on vintage electronic gear. It’s a Pop album in the tradition of, say, Depeche Mode rather than a Dance album. The focus is on vocals and melodies rather than looking for the perfect beat. Contemporary equivalents would be Hot Chip’s ‘Made In The Dark’, LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Sound Of Silver’ or the Junior Boys’ ‘So This Is Goodbye’.

The majority of tracks features vocals by Simenon’s production partner Paul Conboy. ‘Butterfingers’ features Electro artists Fujiya And Miyagi. ‘Black River’ with vocals by former Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Mark Lanergan is a very chilled affair on a par with the latest material by David Byrne and Brian Eno. So is ‘Smog’, sung by Conboy.

‘Future Chaos’ sticks to electronic sounds throughout and the absence of samples means there is no ‘acoustic’ sound for contrast. That can make the album a bit two dimensional if you are not an Electro head yourself. Watch out, though, the vocal performances and the melodies might make you come back whatever your taste in music.

We say:

Listen Here To ‘Future Chaos’
US readers can buy DRM-Free MP3 tracks from Amazon for only $0.89!

Readers from the UK and Ireland can listen to and download ‘Future Chaos’ here from iTunes UK.