The Contino Sessions (Special Edition)

Death In Vegas

From the dizzying, ominous building chords of the opening "Dirge" to the frazzled exorcism of the closing "Neptune City", The Contino Sessions is a tooth-and-nail battle against Richard Fearless' demons. That's the last time any lazy journalist calls Death In Vegas a big beat act. This is the culmination of a long journey from Fearless' inauspicious beginnings--a Chemical Brothers protegÃ©, playing records at the Heavenly Social--but then, The Contino Sessions is infused with a sense of all-conquering, boundless re-invention. Fearless has re-sparked the garage-punk tradition, and he's even enlisted some of junk-rock's old guard to help out. Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie wheezes his way through the smacked-out groove of "Soul Auctioneer", the Jesus & Mary Chain's Jim Reid hisses dirty threats on "Broken Little Sister" and even Iggy Pop shows up to contemplate multiple homicide on "Aisha". Mindless hedonism wearing a little thin? Death In Vegas' bleak rockin' beats end the party with decadent style. --Louis Pattison