Nearly a year ago, Fatboy Slim transformed Coachella’s Saraha tent into a sweaty, throbbing mass of humanity, dropping old school jewels like he was Indiana Jones trying to make a quick getaway with a hole in his shoulder bag. Many, myself included, labeled it a triumphant return. Rumblings that Norman was working on a star studded album under a different alias only added to the intrigue. Enter the Brighton Port Authority, a large collective of Fatboy’s friends and relations whose fictitious, Blair Witch-style recording history provides a cheeky back story to this mostly lackluster album. The boat is big enough. I think what we need is a better beat.
The color palette Fatboy has assembled for this project’Justin Robertson, Martha Wainwright, Dizzee Rascal, Iggy Pop, and David Byrne, to name but a few’doesn’t trump the fact that musically, the BPA is mired in beats that smack of early 2000, if not the late ’90s. ‘Island,’ for instance, is a ‘Sunset (Bird of Prey)’ style synth wash dropped over the beat for Clipse’s ‘Grinding,’ and though ‘He’s Frank’ (featuring Iggy Pop) and ‘Toe Jam’ (featuring Byrne and Dizzee) are catchy tunes, that all-too-familiar Fatboy skank is becoming less of a signature sound and more of a party trick. ‘Spade,’ a sunny, one-drop reggae number featuring Martha Wainwright, is a nice change of pace, but it does little to add to the variety this album could have delivered with just a bit more forward thinking production. But Fatboy is nothing if not industrious, and 2009 will see the release of yet another collaborative project. Here Lies Love is a Byrne/Fatboy collab that Byrne has consistently blogged about, and it’s set to feature everyone from Santogold and Sharon Jones to Tori Amos and Cyndi Lauper. Sexy backstory on this one: a concept album about the secret life of former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos, tentatively sub-titled I Think We’re Going To Need A Bigger Shoe Rack .

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