Getting The Pip

I quite like this review, it manages to review 4 acts & make some broad observations within a pretty tiny wordcount. I wonder what Sac & Pip are doing no...they shold by rights be doing something amazing, but I hope they didn't blow it all with one good LP.

DAN LE SAC Vs SCROOBIUS PIP/ GIDEON CONN/ PRODUCERS WITH COMPUTERS/ RIZ MC – The Zodiac Apr08

“Thou shalt not create thy own Zwinky”

It’s easy to create new lyrics for Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip’s ‘net hit “Thou Shalt Always Kill”, because, like all great satire it simultaneously feels like self evident truth and a highly original creation. “What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed,” as Alexander Pope put it. Naturally it receives a riotous reception tonight, but the cabaret laptop rap recital we witness reveals Dan and Scroob to be more than a one click pony.

“Thou shalt not vote for us on The Road To V”

Whilst Scroob chats and flogs home made 7”s at the merch, label types hand out fliers offering free ringtones: like many satirists who attack the modes of dissemination, from the aforementioned Pope, to Wyndham Lewis, to Chris Morris, the Pip show has suddenly had to find a way of working with the very industry they’re lampooning. One way of doing this is just be really bloody good, and Dan’s laptop work is crunchy and incisive, whilst Pip’s delivery shows a keen knowledge of hip hop beneath his geeky persona. Witness the power of the bravely dissonant second number, addressing self harm in a blizzard of harsh electronic tones and impassioned intonation, or the subtle “Angles”, exploring the minefield around simple binary ethics.

The downside of youth culture success is having to share a bill with Producers With Computers, two fatuous gabbling striplings who risibly mix Kid ‘n’ Play with Grange Hill (although Riz MC is ace, and Gideon Conn is a likably messy cross between G Love and Twizz Twangle).

“Thou shalt not drink crap lager from a plastic cup at £3.15 a pop”

And yet, no matter how slick and regulated our cultural life may become, great artists always shine through. So long as Le Sac and Pip – and their audience – carry on with this fantastic and intelligent approach, there’s hope for our culture yet.