Fish is a collaboration between Samo DJ and Baba Stiltz. 'No Life' is a 40-minute mix tape comprising entirely of their productions inna filter disco style. This rollicking ride slaps hard but doesn't take itself too seriously. Coming in heavy with a bunch of recognisable samples that get looped, mangled, and, yes, filtered to fuck. It's a love letter to those late 90s US house records that took foundational disco classics, fed them into the MPC and pumped out fun, trippy, party music. We're talking about labels like Prescription and Cajual, before the sound was picked up over the pond and transmuted into the altogether shinier French Touch.
And so the time flies by, disembodied voices and whacked-out samples drift in and out of proceedings. There's a good deal of grit and distortion. Tracks end abruptly. There's a burst of static, and the next bass-heavy, compressed groove swells into life. It goes without saying that these two are next-level producers with finely tuned ears, adept at walking the line between the experimental and accessible. They've found that golden ratio, the balance of discordance and tunefulness, evidenced by Stitz's leftfield singer-songwriter outings on Public Possession and Samo's work on LIES. There is a good deal of technique here, but above all, it's a lot of fun.
Open the Monster Munch-inspired cover, slide this tape into your car stereo, lower the roof, and go for a ride. There are plenty of horrors in the world, but the sun is shining, and the groove is bumping.
You can buy Fish's 'No Life' at the Cav Empt store and stream it at their website
Limited copies will also be available from The Trilogy Tapes