Sneaker Pimps 3rd LP - Bloodsport on TommyBoy/Clean Up/Splinter Just like the sound bracelet (the pimps' birthstone since their industrial conception on labels Virgin/Clean-Up in '96) this genre-escaping album is a ring of masterful electro dub symphonies. Backboned with Kid A-styled guitar use, never ending spirals of sampled, crossfaded harmonies and coupled, dynamic beats their latest offering, Bloodsport, will have your feet rhythmically pounding the dance floor or cluttered bedroom carpet (as it is that type of record) in incessant rhythm to the pulsating grooves injected into your head. The disc is pervaded thru-out with clear and harrowing vocals from Chris Corner who, after shamelessly offing her, has inherited the impossible task of making us forget Kelli Ali whose gorgeous vocals graced the boys' bedroom/studio blend that was entitled 'Becoming X'. Their first single from Bloodsport is 'Sick' - a stringy sonnet of acoustic reverb that draws on, as Corner laments, "that inevitably, the one you're with will get sick of you and leave." Although the album's US release date was pushed back nearly a year, and well into April 2002, it has not lost any poignancy though the common-to-the-genre frenzy of in today, out tomorrow. As true pioneers of trip-hop/electronica, it's hard to imagine any pimps record ousted due to label confusion setbacks and their second single, 'Loretta Young Silks', will prove it in less than one full spin - a 6 minute mini-breakbeat to epic blast. Corner's lyrics here are at their best in their ever-abstract splendor: "Got answers for everyone - endless excuses, not habit for anyone, cuz im trying to break your clicktrack heart, seen a vision of perfect grace, airbrushed and lifeless, all content and aftertaste, its like im waiting for the scars to heal" and on into the most madly harmonized chorus I've ever heard from the pimps. For those of you who enjoyed the boys' picking up more traditional instruments on their last and much more acclaimed record will enjoy the fact there although there is less guitar than 'Splinter' there's still a bit more than 'Becoming X' and all in spooky, acoustic arrangments. There were a lot of the same minds at work behind Bloodsport, as there were for 'Becoming X' (Jim Abiss,Flood) but don't expect a deep dish of remixes. The dancefloor titans, such as Armand Van Helden, Nellie Hooper and Fila Brazilia who (among dozens of others) felt compelled to remix 'spin spin sugar' or 'six underground' or 'post modern sleaze' will probably be absent from the remix roster this time around. Not to say there's no mixdowns to speak of whatsoever, as the boys have already worked with the X-ecutioners on Sick and the resulted mixes are to be released as the single's b-sides. Also, the number of singles to come is sketchy, although I'd imagine at least on more - perhaps the opener 'Kiro TV' or the title track 'Bloodsport'. The details at press time are as sketchy as the boys' label plans, rumor has it they will be releasing all new music upon their self-label, Splinter Records.