Ben Pest - Heads Up peeps!

I first became aware of Pest in the late nineties when they used to bring copies of their (now extremely rare and well worth seeking out) Spyna workshop releases into the Camden record shop where i worked. It was obvious from that first listen that these guys had something special to offer, and they certainly haven't disapointed. Although Pest has other members, all of whom are talented musicians with multiple side projects on the go, this is about Ben as he has not one but TWO excellent new 12"s hitting the shelves in the next month..

Anyone who's seen him performing, whether his solo live act or with Cristian Vogel as 'The Black E' will be familiar with the shaggy haired maestro, bent over his equipment, in a world of his own, blind to his surroundings, involuntarily twitching to the music spewing from the cones, and that in essence, is what is unique about the Ben Pest sound.. It's it's own thing; oblivious to artificial ingredients, current fads or trends; his own take on techno/house/breaks/acid and is simultaneously all and none of the above. Miniscule blips conjure themselves into gargantuan riffs, it's not trying to trick you or to be clever. Just great 'bits' set to poppin beats! Not rocket science then? No.. but in my opinion thats exactly where things have been going wrong, too much flashy equipment has long been making up for the shortfall of ideas.
Whatever happened to those great tracks that were just great? Well here are a few to get you started.

Zeedonk (Victim007) is a great acid track with a hook that draws you in and keeps the tension all the way through, finally releasing you half way through for a second 'bit' that jerks smoothly along providing a logical response to the question posed by the previous riff.

Jumpadelic (BonusRound004) is a pots, pans n squeaks oddysey that suits it's title being an extravagant trakky workout with gibberish vocals that fly around all over the place adding to the slapstick sound pastiche.. kind of like a cartoon mouse being chased around a kitchen by a fat chef.. but for the clubs (!)

Pain 'n' Gain (Victim007) Pest comes correct again with this extremely swinging number that builds to yet another creschendo with yet another to die for riff, which had it been written by josh wink or justice would be earmarked for chart success and inclusion on fabric cd tracklists!

Now Panic - Luke's Anger Remix (Bonus Round004) - the original was taken from the great Panic Bridge 001 12" (You NEED this record.. but thats a whole other story) and was a hit in the underground techno clubs across europe and further afield. Label boss Luke's Anger firmly stamps his mark on the track with all the much loved Anger trademarks present and correct, the end result being both very perky and very playable thankyou very much!

Bonus Round 004 "Glitterati Fashionista" is out NOW and Victim 007 is out end of March 2009.
www.myspace.com/benpest
http://www.juno.co.uk/artists/Ben+Pest/?oos=yes