Luke Vibert: Bizarster

Thanks in part to a Trent Reznor co-sign, American electronica listeners were introduced to the peculiar talents of producer Luke Vibert in 1997 by Drum 'n' Bass for Papa. Released under his Plug alias, it wasn't his first album, but Vibert's caffeinated take on the still-underground dance form was given Interscope distribution. This meant that many stateside listeners were introduced to drum'n'bass via Vibert's goofy and furious rollercoaster tracks set to offbeat samples, like John Goodman's howling admonishment from Barton Fink: "I'LL. SHOW. YOU. THE. LIFE. OF. THE. MIND."

Since then, Vibert has spun off aliases to match his productions, each one slotted to fit a particular genre. Wagon Christ signified the trippiest trip-hop, Amen Andrews made dizzying jungle, Kerrier District did filter disco. Albums under Vibert's proper name spread even further: Big Soup spanned breakbeat and downtempo, YosepH dipped into acid, while a compilation, Nuggets, found Vibert digging deep into library music.

The lone constant throughout has been Vibert's corny humor, which comes up often on Bizarster, his first album for his peer Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label in six years. "Knockout" flashes the tricky, skittering footwork of Paradinas and Aphex Twin, with left-field harp runs, analog synth bloops, and the requisite cheeky vocal sample (this one from Mike Tyson's Nintendo game "Punch Out!!"). "L Tronic" uses the neon nightcrawler squiggle from Stone's "Girl I Like the Way That You Move", some more 8-bit bubbles, and an old hip-hop freestyle atop it.

It's a formula that Vibert has done to death no matter the moniker: infectious drum programming, off-center synth melodies, and/or arcade game FX as the next layer, all topped off by vocal snippets from old records or old VHS movies. There's a soul sample, a railing preacher, and a howl to go with the crisp hi-hats and handclaps of "Officer's Club", a boast about "[makin'] like the ghetto [to] blast ya" sped up so as to move from menacing to cartoonish. Vocal lolz reach peak Vibert on "I Can Phil It", built from—as the punny title soon bears out—Phil Collins asking "can you feel it?" soon joined by the MC shout from the live version of Mr. Fingers' "Can You Feel It?", and all manner of "feels", piled up on a track that ultimately doesn't feel like much.

In 2012, Vibert unearthed more of his Plug material, releasing it as Back on Time. Much like Bizarster, it's fun enough, but there's little to suggest it might not have been put to DAT in the late-'90s and dusted off nearly 20 years on, even though those jokey samples no longer land quite right. Strip the clever vocal snippets away from Vibert's productions and you're left with those choice drums and goofy melodies, but there's little beyond that to mind.