The Contino Sessions

FORGET THE name, forget the pop-art/gothic sleeve design, forget titles like ‘Dirge’ and ‘Death Threat’: this ain’t no Fields Of The Nephilim.

In truth, Death In Vegas – as anyone who bought their acclaimed 1997 debut Dead Elvis or caught them on the last Chemical Brothers world tour will tell you – are too canny to be classed or quantified.

Here, DIV – now effectively a one-man band based around graphic artist and DJ Richard Fearless, following the departure of Steve Hellier – have taken the late 20th century free-for-all freefall to heart, citing time-honoured spacerock sources (Can, Silver Apples, industrial-strength lysergic psychedelia) in the same breath as scratch culture, and tempering both disciplines with a paranoia worthy of Vega and Rev. The result? The kind of head-freak music you can dance to.

But then, Fearless is not alone in his extrapolations: somewhere in the outer ether, acts as various as Spiritualized, Primal Scream and the Chemicals are all pursuing similar orbits. Furthermore, this record’s stock is considerably boosted by a bunch of star cameos. Exhibit A: Bobby Gillespie (an entirely apt choice bearing in mind his band’s Echo Dek) flaunting a Blonde On Blonde fixation on ‘Soul Auctioneer’. Exhibit B: Iggy Pop trying out his chat-up technique, waffling on about serial killers, technology and perversion on the thudding dork-rock/dance workout ‘Aisha’. Exhibit C: Jim Reid of the Jesus & Mary Chain doing his customary catatonic-for-the-troops thang over some prime VU/Spacemen 3 drone on ‘Broken Little Sister’.

Elsewhere, Fearless and his colleagues Ian Button (guitar) and Matt Flint (bass), prove themselves adept at mix ’n’ matching atmospheres – from the Cure-like textures of ‘Flying’ to old-skool B3 judderings (‘Aisha’) to electro-raga (‘Neptune City’) to a gritty cinema verite approach (the driving ‘Dirge’). ‘Aladdin’s Story’ meanwhile, implies Air jamming around an old Faces chord sequence, while the London Community Gospel Choir (last heard on Blur’s ‘Tender’ off 13) provide the human interest.

Add up all these factors, and you’ve got a heady and surprisingly coherent piece of work. Break out the oxygen masks.