Liquid Liquid
Slip in and Out of Phenomenon

THE REVIEW

The post punk and funk, from the nervous and danceable style of Talking Heads to the cold, geometric, and angry approach of Gang Of Four, from the dark and Joy Division-esque approach of A Certain Ratio to the wild primitivism tainted by the free jazz avant-garde of The Pop Group, and in a more relaxed and "colorful" manner by their successors Rip Rig & Panic, these are just a few (certainly not only) of the protagonists of the new wave who, in those years, experimented with funk sounds. The Liquid Liquid from New York were something unique, just like the aforementioned bands, they created a strongly personal sound in those years, theirs alone, which would influence and lay the foundations for much music in the decades to come. They would never manage to release a full-length album, but the handful of tracks on the EPs "Liquid Liquid" (1981), "Successive Reflexes" (1981), and "Optimo" (1983) stand there to demonstrate the greatness of this amazing band. This "Slip In And Out Of Phenomenon" brings together the three EPs plus some unreleased studio tracks from that period and some live tracks from the earlier period, when the band was called Liquid Idiot. The lineup consisted of Richard Mcguire (bass), Sal Principato (voice), Dennis Young (marimba), and Scott Hartley (drums), no guitar, no keyboards, no frills, the uttermost rhythm essentiality, the groove and nothing but the groove. It would seem like a completely minimalistic and bare approach, and in a way it is, but the sound that emerges is something gigantic, all-encompassing. Upon listening, the tracks unleash a primordial and primitive force, the bass stands out, grinding lethal grooves, the tribal percussions create hammering and danceable hypnotic trances, the marimba (and occasionally some minimal introduction of other high instruments) creates subtle, minimalist, and reflective melodies while Principato's voice floats like a specter twisting around itself. The atmosphere that emerges is a perfect alchemy between rhythm and something sinister, dark, and arcane. The mood is of imminent threat, anxious. "Groupmegroup" plunges into deep basslines, while the percussion and voice create mantras as dark as the night, the same goes for "New Walk" characterized by even sharper rhythms. The two parts of "Lock Groove" are something crazy, fixed, suffocating tempos, incessant bass, vocal delusions, and a hypnotic atmosphere radiating a noir climate. In "Bellhead," Principato's voice floats, declaiming over bare tribal percussions. "Cavern," later made famous for being picked up by Grandmaster Flash, slithers through intoxicating rhythms, schizoid vocalizations, and a lobotomizing bass line. While "Optimo," "Push," and "Scraper" enjoy hallucinatory bass inserts, the groove reigns supreme, inexorable, just as in every track of this breathtaking, archaic, and arcane monument to experimentation and rhythm, masterpiece.