Staff Reviews

South Central - Society of the Spectacle

Review by John Calvert

The entire project smacks of the type of non-specific, tacky fare that directors of noisy American blockbusters consider futuristic and edgy.»

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having spent much of the past two years orchestrating stadium-sized crowds to lose their marbles whilst touring the world as the lead support for the prodigy and pendulum, south central are now back on home soil and readying themselves for the release of their much-anticipated lp 'society of the spectacle'. chances are you've encountered the brighton-based duo by now. whether you picked up on their string of single / ep releases in 2007-2008 on labels such as young turks / xl, regal and holiphonic, or maybe through one of their numerous mind-melting remixes for acts as varied as metronomy, the maccabees, crystal method, place to bury strangers or their infamous bootleg of the klaxons (classic alert!). but almost certainly you will know them for their increasingly in-demand live show, which has been their primary focus over the past two years. in just the last year, as well as completing their touring with pendulum and the prodigy, they've dj'd to rage against the machine's finsbury park crowd, headlined clubs such as the social (fr), razzmatazz (sp) and loonyland (ger), and wrapped up things after iron maiden's sonisphere set. that 2-year hiatus from releasing music has been anything but a break! if those bookings sound a little disparate, they make perfect sense in south central's world. the duo are, after all, pretty much the only true dance / rock crossover act going, a band that blend elements of both seamlessly and retain an unmatched knack at riling up crowds from both camps. they're the closest thing dance music has to punk rock.
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