A GUY CALLED GERALD - THE JOHN PEEL SESSIONS

A Guy Called Gerald The John Peel Sessions

STRANGE FRUIT SFR083 CD

Collecting the Guy's Peel sessions from 1988, 89 and 95, this CD confirms the peripatetic Gerald Simpson as one of dance music's rare talents. While none of the early material is terribly groundbreaking (with the exception of the mindblowingly awful "Bruford" and the superior "Rockin' Ricki" which pitches House somewhere between the synth stab chaos of mid-80s Pop Art HipHop and Art Of Noise's strident pastiches), no one was a better synthesist of the ideas , circulating at the time. Gerald worked the clavé preset on his Rolands more effectively than anyone else this side of Arthur Baker, squeezing extra rhythmic definition and more swing into House's rigid parameters. While Gerald's rhythmic gift served him well in drum 'n' bass, by the time of the 95 session, he was paying greater attention to texture: the cold wind blowing through the circuitboard industrialism of "Time Labyrinth"; the stainless steel roots of "Amabruku"; and the machine chatter of "3 2 B One".

Peter Shapiro