Dj Pnutz doesn’t do things by halves – after all, Elvis only left the building, she’s left the entire city behind – albeit San Diego rather than Vegas. Could such an epic move possibly inspire an album? It could! But then you knew that anyway because our heroine’s most recent 45 Happy Birthday DJ Pnutz arrived accompanied by precisely such news when it dropped back in December featuring the second and third cuts off the 12-track set that constitutes Goodbye San Diego LP.
The album functions as something of a love-letter to PNutz’ once home city and content-wise features the heavy breakbeats varying from the uptempo and breakdance friendly to slower, more atmospheric 90s-influenced material for which she has become known. The former characterises the opening to the LP which features both sides of the single – in the windmilling drum breaks of the Fatboy Slim-ish Seasoned Woman and the Steven Flex-featuring Chemical Brothers-adjacent 45 DJ.
Hit next track Be Kind Please Rewind however and the tempo plummets to a 90s-era DJ Shadow pace accompanied by heavy synth chords that conjure a Bladerunner-esque atmosphere while things get positively gritty on Dollar Bin Drum Breaks pitting squalling rock guitar against the epic reverb-drenched drums of its title. Ironically, it’s a sound that almost better suits next track 60 Tons Of Steal which opens with sampled news coverage of the 1995 San Diego Tank Rampage (yes, really!) in which an army vet. stole a military tank and caused carnage to city utilities. In the event, this cut is a more reflective affair – perhaps in consideration of questionable military security arrangements and police conduct to end the ‘rampage’. The rolling Sample This and horns-laden Smoke Ribs Everyday bring the somewhat doomy Shadow-esque centre of the set to a close and then it’s all about Did The Best She Could. If you’re a keen follower of San Diego history, you’ll know those words carry a particular resonance since they were used to describe Roseanne Barr’s notorious rendition of the U.S. national anthem at the opening of a San Diego Padres baseball game – cue some heavy bar-room funk-inflected breakbeat that’s still a million times more subtle than Barr’s ‘singing.’
The penultimate two cuts offer a lighter atmospheric counterpoint to the extended middle of the album in the multi-layered, Latin-style percussion of the piano-led We Be Basting, the jaunty flute-led Hard Enough For A Man But Made By a Woman and then it’s time for closer Bon Voyage with it’s pensive Rhodes piano and skeletal breaks. The final sound on the album is a newscaster reminding people of, “Hurricane Laura’s message, loud and clear – if you’re going to leave, now is the time to do it,” a closing audio-sample gag from PNutz who’s first name is, of course, Laura. The end of the LP then and also the end of Pnutz’ days in San Diego though very far one suspects (on the strength of this object lesson in how to craft fat beats) from the end of Pnutz beat-making career.
(Out now HERE)