Our Aim is to Satisfy Red Snapper
Matador Records
Finding its European home on Warp Records alongside the electronic gurus Aphex Twin and Jimi Tenor, Red Snapper would appear to offer nearly unlimited promise for musical innovation--an offer that is definitely made good on with the release of its latest disc.
Creating a moody soup of styles that could only be described as organic electronica (traditional instruments, electronic soundscapes), Red Snapper has crafted an excellent piece of exploratory fusion in Our Aim is to Satisfy...--an album that encompasses everything from playful funk-flavored dance jams to pensively reserved free-form instrumentals.
The record begins with "Keeping Pigs Together," a loping technology-kissed track that continuously casts backward glances (it's convinced that it's being followed). Quick on the opener's heels comes "Some Kind of Kink," an infectious bit of thick-bass-fueled groove.
As Our Aim is to Satisfy... progresses, its apparent nature of contradiction grows more pronounced. Karime Kendra's frantic calls for an evening of club-based sexual fantasy in "The Rough and the Quick" ("up and down my thighs from behind") are followed by the subdued jazz horns and relaxed guitar and drum loops of "Bussing."
The album concludes in stark contrast to nearly everything that came before, with the hesitant pulsating dance of "Alaska Street," the quietly gorgeous "Belladonna" and the dark, distortedly pounding "They're Hanging Me Tonight."
Our Aim is to Satisfy... finds Red Snapper delighting in its own schizophrenia, ultimately refusing to subjugate any of its vision in the name of cohesion. The result of this stance is a surprisingly unified set of expert cuts that all exhibit the signature of Red Snapper in a manner independent of genre.
--Brian Gettler