The Aluminum Group - White Label 12"
(Hefty)

Various Artists - Immediate Action #6
(Hefty)

The Aluminum Group's remix single is for the best song on Pelo, "If You've Got a Lover, You've Got a Life," and contains the album version, a Slicker remix, and a Scott Walker remix. Slicker, a.k.a. John Hughes III, the owner of Hefty, keeps the lush vocals of the original in tact and creates new backing music for them. The backing music he creates is very much typical Slicker material, a short, jittery rhythm formed from a variety of sounds. The rhythms he uses here are a bit too repetitive, however, he does make the remix interesting by, about halfway through the song, changing the rhythm abruptly. This change drastically alters the mood of the piece even though the vocals continue unaltered.

On the other remix, Scott Walker totally ditches the vocals except for one use of one phrase, instead creating totally different music from the existing instrumental tracks, turning the song into a soothing, mellow groove. (Of course, the song was pretty much a "soothing, mellow groove" to begin with, but this is an almost entirely different "soothing, mellow groove.")

Priced the same as 7", this single provides a good glimpse into the band's new sound for those unsure if they want to risk getting the album and, also, is worth getting for those who have the album and really enjoy the band's new direction.

For the 6th and final edition of the Immediate Action series, Hefty compiles 6 different tracks from 8 different artists (or 7, if you count John Hughes and his alter ego Slicker as the same person). The first song combines Slicker with the label's new poster boys The Aluminum Group to create a song, "Next Time." While Slicker's free association of sounds can clearly be heard here, separating the song from those the Navins created with John Herndon and John McEntire, the underlying soul-pop/art-disco undercurrents remain, and the song would sound quite at home on Pelo.

The next two songs are works by John Hughes for the upcoming (early 2001) soundtrack he did for the movie Scarlet Diva, remixed by Savath+Savalas and Telefon Tel Aviv. The soundtrack is supposedly less electronica-sounding, but the remixes definitely bring the music back away from "John Hughes" into the realm of "Slicker." These two songs are as good as any Slicker material released, so it definitely raises expectations for the soundtrack. However, fingers must still remain crossed that Hughes eventually will decide to sing again like he did with Bill Ding; it's doubtful he would be able to do that on a soundtrack and thus far hasn't with Slicker.

The next song is a complete mystery; however, it is the best song on these two 12"s. Hefty claims that the song comes from a duo of infamous homeless graffiti artists called The Sagittarian Burners who sent a one track demo from Japan with the simple instructions "please release." The song has a light, jazzy air about it with a strong upright bass backbone and a simple "badabababa" vocal hook. Don't let the Volkswagen people get ahold of this one.

The 6th installment of the Immediate Action series is completed by the band Process who have releases on UK's Fat Cat label. This one man band covers the entire B-side of the 12" with fluffy, puffy industrial drones. The first song, "Define," packs a solid, steady groove under the clouds of chemicals, but the second song, "Diffusions," is more of a soundscape, sounding like midnight outside the plant, with crickets, frogs, and moonbeams overpowering the distant hum and rhythm of machinery.

With all these releases the past couple months, maybe John Hughes should take a break. But, since every goddam one of them I've heard was good, let's hope he doesn't!

jim steed 2000 nov 22