Beware of the Bird

Album Review

Barclay Crenshaw (aka Claude VonStroke) is a San Francisco-based DJ who grew up on the outskirts of Detroit and came of age while Detroit techno was doing the same. Now the owner of Dirty Bird Records, he has grown into a mature and sometimes surprisingly avant-garde exponent of modern house music, one who is clearly unafraid of breaking the rules if they're getting in his way. Beware of the Bird brings together several compilation tracks and other miscellany along with a handful of previously unreleased material — though frankly, unless you follow the European dance and club charts closely it's unlikely you'll have heard any of these tracks before. Most are characterized by a winning combination of subdued gentleness and forward-looking adventurousness — "Chimps" and "Whistler" are more head-nodders than body-rockers, and "7 Deadly Strokes" bumps along on a cheapo synthesizer groove that comes across as more cool than hot. But then come the surprises: "Eastern Market" is built on a drum part that hints strongly at jungle, and on a chord progression that is almost comically exalted; on the flip side, "Southern Fried Mix" (a remix of Justin M. & Sammy D.'s "Southern Draw") is vulgar in the most stupid way, and "Lullaby" is just plain boring. But there's more than enough top-drawer material here to make dance music fans look forward eagerly to the remix album or his next collection of new material, whichever comes first.