Phew! Can't say I've had the pleasure of meeting influential DJ SI BEGG in person, but I think I can pretty safely conclude one thing about his personality: he's a workaholic. Seriously. He also records under handles such as Buckfunk 3003, Cabbage Boy, S.I.Futures, Bigfoot, Zygmunt Janowski and just a cursory scan of his collaborations and releases (on labels such as Hydrogen Dukebox and Mosquito as well as Novamute) since the mid-1990s is enough to have your reviewer carted off to the health farm for an enforced break.
Begg is renowned as a heavyweight, with one review your reviewer having stumbled across bracketing him with Kraftwerk in terms of influence, though I'm not sure I can see that with "Buss", the second single to be lifted from his highly acclaimed recent album, "The Director's Cut." Nonetheless - while not strictly your reviewer's thang - this is pretty good stuff, with a seriously infectious edge about it.
Available in both CD and 12" formats, "Buss" comes with the requisite slew of remixes and alternative versions. The track features a hectoring rhyme from Miss C (who's not that dissimilar to a less irritating Miss Dynamite-e) and pits upbeat, wonked-out hip-hop against UK Garage and a horribly addictive flute loop which wouldn't be out of place soothing a cobra in the streets of Marrakesh. Larvely.
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Of the remixes, the best is arguably the Club Mix, which - though lengthy - is bloopy, expansive and quite dubby and the only thing here that really shows why Begg is renowned for foundation-shaking bass emissions. There's also a nice remix of "Move Up" (the MAH VIP Mix) which gets all Dizzee Rascal on our ass and is well infectious.
So, while Si Begg ain't entirely your reviewer's natural flavour of funk, you can see surely see why his reputation precedes. Tasty, catchy and bouncy, "Buss" will provide an interesting ride.
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