Canadian Aaron Funk (aka Venetian Snares, Ventriloquist Snakes, BeeSnares, Last Step, Puff, Snares Man!) made his name in breakcore whilst his Last Step persona first came to light in 2005 with a 12” on Planet Mu. The first Last Step album Last Step came out last year and 1961 is the ‘difficult’ second album.

Well it starts off promising enough with ‘My Home Recordings’ as I like any alt.acid, especially where there’s a place for the 60’s TV commercial interlude vocals? Perhaps this is the first inclination as to why this album is called 1961. Does ‘61 Disco’ follow this theme, only if you’re into broken go-go dubstep 80’s synth pop instrumentals. Blimey this is leftfield!

This is right up your electro acid synth cut up analog drum beats of Vibert and Squarepusher WARP types. ‘HAHA Waffles’ is similarly disjointed with a geek twiddling with a Roland 303, 606 808 et al. As is the strangely entitled ‘Seafoam Green’ and quite a few others.

And then there’s the crazy drums on ‘Sonic Blue’ and ‘Shoreline Gold’; the Mark Stewart like sample on ‘30TH’ and ‘Triple Self Portrait’ is like a jazzed-up acid soundtrack to a Francis Bacon triptych (my favourite of the set).

‘Showboat’ is the most melodic but the last track is a bit of a low note of Tokyo clown theme.

Not everyone’s cup of tea as they say and I suppose the guys at Planet Mu sum it up best when they say, “Just listen and buy…” as it does get better every time you hear it.

Remember Last Step lets you set the last step in your pattern but any idea why this album is called 1961?

Reviewed: Last Step - 1961 (Planet Mu) Cat. No. ZIQ220CD Release date: 12th October 2008
Tracklistings
1. My Home Recordings (5:42)
2. 61 Disco (4:37)
3. HAHA Waffles (3:13)
4. Seafoam Green (4:16)
5. Portoghese (4:37)
6. Triple Self Portrait (4:31)
7. Surf Green (5:04)
8. Sonic Blue (3:34)
9. 30TH (4:30)
10. Showboat (3;16)
11. Shoreline Gold (3:37)
12. Cakey (4:58)

Links
www.myspace.com/laststep606
www.planet-mu.com
www.myspace.com/childrenofmu
www.venetiansnares.com
www.vsnares.com
www