BS2000: Simply Mortified : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz and Beasties tour drummer Amery "AWOL" Smith began BS2000 a couple of years ago as a long-distance beat-swap; using Roland SP-1200 sampling-drum machines, they flipped files across the country, stumbling onto an underdeveloped niche somewhere between old funk, hooligan hip-hop and new lounge kitsch. Simply Mortified, the duo's second album, deepens the groove and broadens the sound sources with such trusted names as Casio and Farfisa. The resulting low-fi party mix rolls together all manner of wiseass delirium, taking its cadences from hip-hop and its titling conventions from bebop ("Flossin' at Lawson"), all the while nodding affectionately at old dance crazes ("The Scrappy" and the audience-participation "The Side to Side"). And just when you think these rhythmheads have run out of tricks, they serve up a gorgeous instrumental excursion like "New Gouda" to prove the rule that even a top-of-the-line sampler is useless without the musical instincts to do something with it. (RS 861)

TOM MOON