An anti-commercialism, community-minded collective of musicians, King Cobb Steelie play alternative rock that is a jumble of sampling, scratching, world music instruments and studio sorcery, showing a flair for seamless ecclecticism. Far from being a band that grafts diverse influences onto a Western rock sound, these musicians compose organic, holistic pieces that also create spaces for rich improvistional digressions during live shows. Their first CD, S/T (1993, Raw Energy Records/ A&M), which includes some scratching and samples, introduced KCS as a punk band with knee-deep grooves- a kind of superfreak Fugazi. KCS's next effort was Project Twinkle (1994, Lunamoth), a spacier, bassier dub-jazz groove shower that demonstrated a Bill Laswell musical influence on the band (Laswell also produced the CD). This work has an emphasis on instrumental/ electronic sounds over vocals and jangly guitars. Exploring more electronic sounds than ever, KCS experimented with beats on Junior Relaxor (1997, EMI Canada). Martina Topley-Bird (Tricky's singing partner) - influenced vocals and Trip-Hop stylings indicated yet another stage of evolution for the band, recapturing the edge of their live performances but keeping a low-key groove. King Cobb Steelie, with their expert use of Dub, Trip-Hop, Punk, Rock and Funk, are one of the few groups who can meld and interplay such influences with simple grace. Mayday followed in early 2001.
After a three year hiatus, King Cobb Steelie return on Ryko in a much more slimmed-down form, with only three of the seven members remaining. As you'd expect, the band's sound is also pared back to the basics. Gone are the atmospheric jams dripping with dub, replaced with a more muscular pop groove. There are still some really nice moments, like "Skyscraper" and "The Stinger," but the whole thing falls quite a bit short of previous efforts.
