Green Velvet

Curtis Jones makes techno the way Prince plays funk — just to fuck you up. His sound is cold, his vocals are surreal and as Green Velvet, he's the urban prophet, delivering monologues through a unique set of warped freak-uencies. The electro-discourses include everything from the end of civilisation to the disintegration of the self and the mania is felt just as intensely throughout his dark disco soundtrack. For those who've never had the Green Velvet experience, this 12-track best-of compilation makes for a good introduction, featuring most of his classic tracks. "Flash" is the Green one's tabloid-like tour guide for parents on the decadent playgrounds of rave culture. "Answering Machine" samples messages from ex-girlfriends and landlords, to whose complaints Jones comes with the primal response of pounding on the drums while yelling out, "I don't need this shit!" Newer tracks like "Coitus" and "The Red Light" displays an affinity for the synthetic bass line style of Giorgio Moroder, but with the eccentric vocals they almost pass for an update of Grace Jones and other acts from the gloomier side of ’80s new wave. Considering how techno purists tend to celebrate its conventional instrumental form, Green Velvet's bizarre narratives reclaim the human voice as an organic, yet estranged force in music.