In an urban jungle under the shallow concrete ground a prehistoric tiger roams its dark scenery sneaking across the club floor with sensual moves, muscle built legs made for running and characterized by its long upper canine teeth ready to take a lethal grab of your dancing body. Sabretooth is Ben Fraser’s Full-Power-Punk-On project where he pushes the limits of an already abused music genre on how to groove the power in full on dance music. After 12 years playing the drums Ben Fraser decided to jump on the psychedelic trance fest and contribute with his own visions and since his first release on Planet Zogg Records in 2005, Ben has gone on to set-up Sabretooth Records.
Ben Released his self titled debut in 2008 and is now ready to give us his follow up Sabretooth 2, which consists of filthy, raw, acid-tinged sounds for the punkadelic dance floor. I have to admit that I’ve never heard his debut album and neither have I heard his Sabretooth Record releases. I got mixed emotions concerning Sabretooth 2. On one hand I like the punk-punched sound he brings to the table with a brutal drive and slick attitude, but on the other hand I would normally take tracks like these and diminish them as being chemically based full on music for the mad raving party goners.
There are very few if any actual psychedelic elements in his sound and at times I feel bored of what he tries to provide, Punk-Trance. It all has a cool factor I could do without. In some tracks, like the climax driving remake of Michael Jackson’s¬ Smooth Criminal, (T5, Cruise Control), he manages to glow with an extremely pleasant drive, grind-making attitude and cool sample effects making the whole track fly in cruise control. And on Scourge (T8) he gives us deep bouldering baselines in a down-tempo track that is on the verge of making me cum in my pants as it has grooves out of the square box and sounds that tickle your chakras. Admittedly when it comes to productions skills Ben is a talented producer who tries hard to please and does so with variation. One of his successes is the tenth track, Cabin Fever, where his overall sound gathered in one track makes the light shine in an otherwise dark tunnel. Odin’s Raven (T6) got complex layers with some storytelling and gives an acid-trip feel like the sample proclaims, and it got some swirls inside its sounds that manage to impress with a smile. Unfortunately most of the tracks begin promising with crazy slick effects and shocking baselines as they set their wheels on the elements, but always seem to lose the grip of my concentration and smiling mood as the tracks evolve with nagging synths and repeating grooves. |
