Utah Saints

Even if their celebratory sensibilities hadn't been at odds with the prevailing early-'90s mood of spooky techno and dour grunge, Utah Saints would have been an aberration. The giddy propulsion Tim Garbutt and Jez Willis generated seemed sparked not by MDMA brain frenzy but by old-time pop innovation. The club smash "Something Good," which looped Kate Bush over a staccato synth piano, sounded inevitable (Bush's voice had always seemed to have been electronically treated already). Elsewhere, the duo's self-titled debut set minimalist electronic patterns against a sledgehammer wallop -- as if Philip Glass had written a marimba concerto for the NCAA Final Four.

Almost a decade after label squabbles sidelined them, Garbutt and Willis returned with Two, a more lively reunion than you might expect. In the intervening decade, the Big Beat wallop of Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers had upped the stakes of instant gratification, and Utah Saints rose to the challenge with self-explanatory slabs of fun such as "Funky Music" and "Punk Club." But Big Beat's jock appeal had also burned itself out in the clubs. The Saints had returned to a world where the featureless pulse and ebb of trance music had flooded the dance floors. Back in '92, could even the most dire prophet have guessed that the end of the world would be this dull? (KEITH HARRIS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide