What you say
No-one has reviewed Ethnic Instrumental by The Chap yet.
What we say
 This record left our Ant feeling unmoved.
Got a 12" on Lo Recordings which is two remixes of The Chap. The first mix is of Joakim and takes 'Ethnic Instrument' into the glitzy disco world that's like CSS and Daft Punk fighting under a mirrorball. It's not surprising for Lo to be putting out disco records considering the excellent Black Devil Disco Club material they've put out. This is a bit trendy sounding for me personally but I can see the appeal. Brian says it's music for tuggers. Vincent Oliver 's "Minimal Effort" goes for a reduced techno style that fans of Minus, Sutekh, minimal Kompakt etc might dig.
What the label says:
TRACKLISTING: A: Ethnic Instrument (Joakim Remix) B: Caution Me (Vincent Oliver Remix)
OVERVIEW: While pan- European, London-based, modern pop group The Chap, were busy
touring all over Europe, some very special people got busy remixing tracksfrom The Chap’s recent acclaimed album, Mega Breakfast. Some of the results can be enjoyed on this 12” release…The Chap have become known and loved for their inimitable pop – improve - disco – rock – with – strings sound, captured in some crunchy, truly “outthere” home production and a furiously rocking live show, complete with dance routines and scary faces. It was during one particularly wild gig in Paris some years ago that they encountered a polite young man who showed himself to be very impressed with the band’s work and who would later emerge as the disco superstar that is Joakim. Joakim once claimed in an interview that seeing The
Chap live that night counted as one of his main inspirations. Thus it was only logical he should provide a remix of one of the Mega Breakfast songs. He chose “Ethnic Instrument”, The Chap’s account of their ambivalent relationship with what is commonly called “World Music” and turned it into the massive funk/disco/rock floor filler it has always secretly wanted to be. A huge guitar riff becomes even more huge, a scary low voice becomes even scarier, and a swarm of voice cut-ups and guitar glitches adorn a massive disco beat. Funny, unsettling and hugely danceable – a suitable reinterpretation of The Chap ethic.
The mix on the flipside, of “Caution Me” from Mega Breakfast, comes courtesy of the polite young man known as Vincent Oliver, of Lo Recordings and Border Community fame. This is already his second mix for The Chap, and a beautifully atmospheric and minimal affair it is. A shredded bass guitar and a minimal beat pulsate throughout, while the original vocal gets lost in a haze of refined melancholia, all ending in a very peculiar rave party… The Chap are overjoyed to have found two collaborators for their mission of the sonic search for a heart of gold in a world gone cold and are convinced
you will concur.
More info and pictures of The Chap can be found at www.thechap.org
“The Chap give birth to freakish Dadaist disco babies – you’ll love it!” NME
“Like Underworld if they’d decided to be a lo-fi rock and roll combo instead of
a stadium selling dance act...it is stunning.” VICE UK
“Sufficient to gather up much of what is presented to us as contemporary cutting-
edge pop and render it deeply mediocre by comparison”? Guardian
Guide, Track of the Week
“The Chap are the only group that have managed to combine the ruff and dirty
energy of disco and rock with a sense of pastel warmth and melodic clarity.”
Straight No Chaser
“It’s cool and dry, and it’s all over the place as well. It’s sonically unpredictable
and harmonically lopsided, yet almost infuriatingly catchy. It’s fractured and
jerky, but smoothly enticing at the same time. It’s cerebral and detached in its
methodology but visceral in its impact. Most of all, it’s fantastic fun. Serious
fun.” The Wire
“The Chap are both gear and fab!” John Peel RIP
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