Fatboy Slim: On The Floor At The Boutique : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

"I never worked a day in my life," goes the vocal sample that opens Fatboy Slim's new mix compilation. "I just laid back and let the big beat lead me." On the Floor at the Boutique draws the listener through one of Fatboy's notoriously body-moving DJ sets. One of his biggest hits, "The Rockafeller Skank," makes an appearance, but the funk-soul brother also gets down on the educational-historical tip, gleefully tripping over classic hip-hop break beats ("Apache," by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band) and technotrance (Aldo Bender's "Acid Enlightenment") like a smiley-faced sonic shaman. Electronica-purist player haters might sniff at Fatboy's pump-up-the-volume populism, but the genre-defying eclecticism and ear for big hooks on display here are undeniable. On the Floor at the Boutique proves once and for all that, despite his commercial success, when Fatboy Slim rocks the wheels of steel, he's still mad, bad and dangerous to know.