I always get slightly nervous when I come to write about an artist such as UK’s Tim Simenon, who maintains the lofty status of one of electronic music’s great figureheads. In this case it all seems particularly out of my depth seeing as the dude contributed significantly to the rise of what NME coined, “DJ culture,” in their 1987 issue which featured Simenon on the cover with that incessant yellow smiley face, which Simenon inadvertently introduced into the rave and acid house scenes only to watch it explode into an icon in a mere moment. (All the while I was three and quite possibly scouting for lizards in my backyard.) Since then Simenon has produced and remixed material from the likes of Bowie, U2, Depeche Mode and Massive Attack, which has of course rendered him some sort of a legend, so I’ll probably accidentally write something completely wrong about him and get yelled at by some Simenon tragic, but persevere we must.

It’s been twenty-one years since the London-born Simenon released his debut single, Beat Dis, under the Bomb the Bass title, and thirteen years since his last record, Clear. During that thirteen year gap, he created his new album, Future Chaos, scrapped the entire thing, only to make it again, but this time using just a Minimoog synth, laptop and microphone set up in the kitchen of good friend and former A.P.E., Paul Conboy, Simenon intriguingly asserting, “…If there could possibly be a thing as electronica unplugged, then Future Chaos might be it.”

Future Chaos has been quietly approaching its September 15th release ever since, this refreshing lack of fanfare feeling entirely appropriate, the record picking up where Clear left off with its darker, more subtle sound and decidedly unrave-like aesthetic. If the life-blood of early Bomb the Bass was perfectly executed sample gathering and layering, with Future Chaos it’s the Minimoog, which helped to create the combination of what Simenon describes simply as, “drums, bass, some tones and some voices.”

And oh yes, the voices. With a career as rich in big-name collaborations as Simenon’s, including Sinead O’Connor, Bjork, and Neneh Cherry, he is unlikely to find himself lacking in options for a guest vocalist or two. So for Future Chaos we see appearances from Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best, Jon Spencer, Toob, Conboy, and a particularly gorgeous effort by former Queens of the Stoneage vocalist/guitarsman, Mark Lanegan, which you can sample below.

You can head over to the Bomb the Bass Myspace page to hear more of the tracks from the album, and you can pick up a copy in September via !K7 Records.

Bomb The Bass - Black River (Ft. Mark Lanegan)

- bec