The idea of an entire album made largely of the sounds of various surgeries and medical procedures is a morbid thought for most of us. After all, going to the doctor is usually a sign of something being wrong; as mortal beings, continually stalked by death and disease, some of our greatest fears revolve around the medical profession, for better and for worse.
A few seconds after the opening of “Lipostudio…and so on” this San Francisco-based duo launch into fat-vacuuming disco grooves (it’s great fun to reveal the sound source to unwary listeners mid-song) completely removing even the sound of human fat being sucked into a tube from the context of surgery. Is it an even greater perversity to take the sounds of medicine and turn them into freakish dance music? Perhaps, but the final result is so great – and even touching at times – that the question of the original sound sources takes a backseat to what’s been done with them.
The swinging cage door squeaks of “For Felix (and all the rats)” are ripped and pulled into a serenade of strings for a lost pet (the aforementioned Felix) while the breakbeats (and broken noses) of “California Rhinoplasty” lead into a light-hearted ending for what is one of the most a remarkable sample-based albums in recent memory. With an accessibility which belies the original premise (concept-albums are *so* 1973) even the hissing grind of laser eye surgeries or the tones of a pediatric audiologist’s testing sessions are enough to move both mind and booty.
