Killing Puritans

Armand Van Helden

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 6, 2000)
• Original Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Armed Records
• ASIN: B00004TKRC
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,240 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
NYC DJ Armand Van Helden has described his second LP as his "Sex Pistols record." He loads his tracks with a Rollins-like spleen and a raw production that seems to kick against the complacency of Ecstasy culture. Killing Puritans opens with a rant against the corporate machine and moves swiftly to the Scorpions-sampling metal-dance of "Little Black Spiders" and meta-cool of "Breakdancers Call"--jazz solos, B-boy licks, and Fatboy fills. His pace and breadth are fearless--from the Will Smith-ish block party of "Full Moon" (which guest-stars the rapper Common) to the low-end booty of "Hybridz" with its apocalyptic preachers field-recorded in Central Park. The album swells with classics--"Flyaway Love" detonates hellifre over an Ibizan disco-dream while the closer, "Conscience," howls with urban empathy. "Conscience" backs a soaring blues from Wu-Tang's Takeitha with a ferociously ramped-up mix; one could term this song rave's "Inner City Blues." Killing Puritans is an extraordinary, unblushing work. --Amazon.co.uk

Product Description
If last year belonged to disco samples, this year Armand has dug far further back into the crates, unearthing early house music, hip hop, 80s synth pop and yes, even heavy metal for his source material. Applying hip hop's rapping and scratching to house music, he has come up with radical new hybrids likely to resonate through popular music for years to come. "Little Black Spiders" has Armand fighting for your right to party, mashing Euro headbangers The Scorpions into the most danceable heavy metal record ever. "Full Moon" sub poenas currently white hot rapper Common to lay down some rhymes over a class boogie groove that harks back to the Jungle Brothers early hits. "Flyaway Love" is the track for the DJs: pumping dark house just right for those Ibiza sunrises. "Hybridz" sees Armand picking up the mic himself to trade rhymes with his DJ mate Junior Sanchez over a rhythm that's pure New York Sound Factory 1988.

Best of all is first single "Koochy". Perfect pop and headf*ck house rolled into one, this is the epitome of the album's spirit has Armand rapping over clicking electro, scratching and an eardrum-popping sample lifted from Gary Numan's electro pop classic "Cars". Forget everything you've heard from the sample slaya so far: once heard, "Koochie" will drill its way into your brain and become Armand's biggest tune yet. Destined to be for light aeroplane -flying futurists everything Basement Jaxx are to flamenco guitars.

This is the year of Armand Van Helden: prepare to leave your preconceptions at the door when you pick up that flak jacket. This year Van Helden is Armand and Dangerous.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF HIP HOP, June 16, 2000

By	Dsc "dsc" (New York City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Get your servings here. Stacks of floppy beats smattered with a stick of greasy grooves and topped with whipped drumkicks and bass lines as thick and sweet as molasses. Would I have ever imagined I would be dancing in my living room to hip hop? Hardly. But this one did it. When the album's finished, I have to stop and wonder, "Did that music just happen? Did I just hear that?" Truly amazing music.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the album deserves five stars, January 4, 2001

By	SL (RI) - See all my reviews

I don't know why some people gave such bad reviews for this album. They say it's not original, it's too loopy, they've heard better, etc. I think Killing Puritan is revolutionary--it shows many talents of Armand Van Helden; he is able to mix and loop metal, jazz, breakbeats, house, hip-hop, rap, electronica and I was quite impressed with his scratching skills in Koochy--and he does all this in one album. It's revolutionary because no one has quite done it as well as he did here. Most DJ mixes are either too repetitive in style or mixing only occurs at the end of each songs. And, I am sick of Hi-NRG house music which all sounds the same and are boring--I'm talking about the type you hear in cheesy clubs. Killing Puritan is revolutionary because he breaks away from mainstream House. The music may not be all that original but the way Van Helden put all together in the album is simply amazing and is very original. Little Louie Vega, Tony Morrillo, Masters at Work are great house DJs but none of them have attempted to create albums as diverse as Killing Puritans. I say, if you like and appreciate house music, this should be a must have album. Don't expect too much to hear Fatboy Slim or Chem Bros, though. It's just different.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best albums in last year, June 13, 2000

By	Rimma Gizatulina (Ufa, Russia) - See all my reviews

'Killing Puritans' Recently he's been inviting controversy by knocking his fellow US house artists for failing to say anything and getting stuck in a rut. His response, in this album, is to use influences and samples that would normally be anathema to house music.

Kicking in with a moody hip hop intro on the title track, Killing Puritans leaps through a whirlwind tour of genres. Breakdancer's Call flirts with drum 'n' bass, electro and leftfield jazz breaks. Full Moon is a seriously old skool funky hip hop groove, while Watch Your Back features former Brand New Heavies singer N'Dea Davenport and settles into a tough and funky groove. Hybridz is pure Jungle Brothers hip house, even down to "house your body" hooks. 'Flyaway Love' is a filtered disco offering, while 'Swamp Thing' nods in the direction of Afro beat.

In drawing on rock, hip hop, electro, drum 'n' bass and early electronic artists, Van Helden mirrors the developments dance acts have been making in the UK and Europe, rather than US artists. Little Black Spiders manages to out do big beat, or rather what it became, at its own game. Rather than adding guitars to dance music, the track simply rocks in a straight-forward, head banging mosh of a metal tune.

Again the references are European and Spiders uses a sample from Hanover's The Scorpions, a band that in its heyday was big with long haired, leather clad types everywhere and simply colossal in Japan. Apart from anything else this is a stroke of marketing genius.

The final skill on this album is the incidental inserts between tracks that range from minimal statements to self mocking conversations and direct political references.

Whether Killing Puritans manages to be as boundary busting as Van Helden intends is questionable.

It certainly isn't unheard of for US house DJs to play rock music (Ron Hardy and Larry Levan were both famous for chucking Led Zeppelin or anything else that worked into the mix) and it's not unusual for house acts to produce hip hop music.

But Van Helden has challenged the parameters of house music and produced that still rare thing - a dance album that works at home.