Ruby Vroom
Soul Coughing
Warner
Bros., 1994
Reviewed by
Piero Scaruffi
Soul Coughing's game excursions into new funk first came to light on the 1994
album Ruby Vroom. Theirs, however, is an alienated funk; an immoderate, frayed
mutant form that revels in slow-motion jazz, surreal sampling and hip-hop syncopations.
Upright bassist Sebastian Steinberg and drummer Yuval Gabay dominate the sound with their
rhythmic prowess. The genial samples purveyed by Mark de Gli Antoni (previously a
collaborator with New York experimental music maven John Zorn) continuously make the music
stranger, while the poetic soliloquys (more rapped than sung) of frontman M. Doughty lend
a philosophical weight to the project.
But there's a real wit to the festivities, and a sense of discovery. "Down To
This" sums it up, with its doo-wop choir and fanfare of voices, while "Bus To
Beelzebub" sports an almost cartoonish novelty. "Is Chicago, Is Not
Chicago" rumbles with the best of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' catalog, while "Mr.
Bitterness" is propelled by African-tinged percussion. The quartet really gets down
to business on the languid "Sugar Free Jazz," the sardonic "Screenwriter's
Blues," and the near-Swing parody of "Casiotone Nation."
Ruby Vroom delights with a rhythmic intensity that has not been seen since the
heyday of Public Image Ltd. The seemingly haphazard sampling helps soften the rigid
rhythmic geometries, allowing the songs to halluncinate toward any possible tangent. On
paper, the band's white rap/funk (especially Doughty's pretensions toward a beat poet
persona) could raise some eyebrows in the wrong direction. But in practice, Soul Coughing
skillfully integrate various genres with an intellectual and innovative approach.
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"Ruby
Vroom delights with a rhythmic intensity that has not been seen since the heyday of
Public Image Ltd. "
Piero Scaruffi
- NATN Contributor
Related Links
Soul Coughing Homepage
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