23 Skidoo

The Culling is a 20-year-old live document by a band known more through critical assessment than actual record sales. 23 Skidoo were an idiosyncratic outfit built from a duality that synched-up funk rhythms (in the same way that Joy Division or early P.I.L. was funky) and white noise workouts. Taking their name from a William Burroughs text, they also adopted his cut-up ethos. The Culling was the band’s move into the deeper end of the experimental pool. The first part of the recording (which was actually side two of the original vinyl release) features a collaboration with the Gamelan Orchestra of Bali. The usual chiming joyousness of that group is undercut with a minimalist minor chord bass and keyboard pulse that suggests every dark alley Tom Waits ever stumbled into. Part two is where they bring the noise. A racket of smashed metal percussion from the brothers Johnny and Alex Turnbull is pierced and sparked by random tape loops of paranoid speech and air raid siren horns scaring the funk out of their dance-ready audience. The program on CD has been expanded to include an extra 26-minute loop-based piece from another 1982 performance.