DJ Hell
Neoclash
International Deejay Gigolo
With all the talk of clubland hipsters rediscovering electroclash, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that DJ Hell is having another renaissance (not that the man behind International Deejay Gigolo ever really left). But rather than soundtracking coke-fueled afters with The Dare, he’s been in the studio revisiting the darker corners of his record collection.
Case-in-point is his latest album, Neoclash. The title is a red herring. Far from being a victory lap of guitar-fueled adrenaline and neon spandex, the record borrows heavily from old-school Chicago house and acid. Both opening tracks, for example, take vintage Windy City samples (from Jackmaster Farley and Silk Hurley, respectively and turn them into after-hours anthems where the sinister feedback and creeping synths sound like Nicolas Lutz remixing DJ Deeon. He sticks with this formula throughout the record: transforming campy ’70s and ’80s genres into claustrophobic club weaponry, be it chopped and-screwed-Donna Summer motifs (“Medussa”), Krautrock soulsearching (“Purple People”) or Italo synths (“The Rain”). Will DJ Hell help drive future iterations of Brat Summer? Unlikely. But it’d be refreshing to get treated to a Hell Winter here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Listen to the album here.
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