Cargo Records

Slave To The Cat Gang

In 1997 Damien Lynch aka Sarsparilla decided that, rather than sit around and listen to John Carpenter soundtracks recorded off the TV with a ghetto blaster, he could actually attempt to make some tunes himself. So he did, under the influence of 90s-era Warp techno and 80s electro and hip hop, concentrating less on software and more on outboard gear and classic drum machines.
However, the rag-bag of archive influences on his third album ‘Slave To The Cat Gang’ are as much about progress as they are a display of fondness for buzzy bygone sounds, and an arresting collection of tunes emerges from the circuits, performed with both confidence and an invigorating lack of irony.

In a similar spirit to Dam Funk, Sasparilla’s metier has it’s origins in a love for the sounds, grooves, textures and vibe of classic synth music. Tracks like ‘Diamond Dagger’ and ‘Pop N Rock’ bring with their vintage analogue sounds recollections of period US cop show themes, with their freeze-frame and name-caption opening sequences. ‘Bring Them Then’ is real “bad-guy” music – all marching beat and pummelling synth line with a dose of menace, while ‘Once When’ expands brilliantly, and with typically chunky analogue flavours, on a straightforward melody. ‘Slave To The Cat Gang’ even gives a slight tip of the hat to classic ’80s Jacko, and with ‘Silver Horses’ it’s as if dark disco had never been away. An evocative, sometimes ominous, and always striking album on which the textures are as carefully toned as the beats behind them, but where melody and accomplished tunesmithery are always to the fore.