Heatsick - Intersex

Heatsick is a new(ish) preoccupation of Steve Warwick's - a former member of Bird Of Prey / Birds Of Delay and brief punk-funk phenomena Woman. Warwick spends the majority of his time living over in Berlin-town nowadays. Here he's been busily toying with a broken Casio (possibly some kind of MT series by the sounds of it(?)) and a myriad of cheap loop and effects pedals, deconstructing the basic principles of club music in an attempt to bring something fresh to the mix. The title 'Intersex' is a reference to German Sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld's discussions on the relationship between music and sexuality which suits Warrick's experimentation's on body music well. 'Ice Cream On Concrete', the track that dominates the majority of the first side here is reassuringly brilliant. On paper the idea of manipulating just one cheap synth and creating a likable thirteen minute track with it seems unfathomable but Warwick nails it here with a tune that hints at Ron Hardy or even Afrika Bambaataa's early experiments in the field. The variation in tones are genuinely surprising as is the general funkiness of the track. Flip it and 'Tertiary' hits on a soulful hook that makes great use of the Casio's percussive tones coming off like a mix of early Detroit club music and Miami's over-indulgent electro-funk on the mid-80's. The final piece 'Vom Anderen Ufer' indulges the straight up experimental side of loop based composition and, for me, betrays the inherently joyous nature of the previous two compositions. Not necessarily a bad thing but it doe's spoil the consistency of 'Intersex' by returning to the pursuit of non-linear sound collaging. Saying that, it's still sonically intriguing, especially coming from a little old Casio. As with all the Pan releases 'Intersex' is lovingly packaged and designed thus justifying the hefty price tag.