Two questions – if someone is a great producer, does the album recorded by him have a chance of success? In theory, yes. And if someone can start a party that wipes out everything that is within the range of the speakers, does the album recorded by him have a chance of success? In theory, yes.
I saw William Bensussen live twice, both at the Tauron Nowa Muzyka Festival. William, who performs and records under the pseudonym The Gaslamp Killer, is a phenomenal stage phenomenon. Never before or since have I seen anything so energetic. Bensussen is an animal – he jumps, dances, throws himself around the stage like a madman, shakes a storm of curly hair, shivers into the microphone and gives the impression that he is having even more fun than the audience. He can make such a party that if it wasn’t for the fact that in the heat of fun I did not pay attention to what was happening around, I could have sworn that apart from the crowd around the whole Katowice was also dancing.
So. So much for the phenomenon of The Gaslamp Killer, because it more or less ends here. I will not write about his great production achievements, about his indescribable contribution to Low End Theory either, because I have to write about his first album. And the only one – I do not believe that I will write it – fortunately.
Maybe I just started on the wrong side. Maybe I should have done the other way around – listen to Breakthrough first and then see Bensunssen live. Maybe then Breakthrough wouldn’t have been the biggest musical disappointment I’ve ever experienced. After the first listen, I didn’t notice that the album was over. After the second, I wondered if someone accidentally replaced me with a disc in the player. By the third, I gave up halfway. Where is the energy? Where are the dancing beats, where is the madness, the animality of Bensunssen from the stage? What happened? Why do I see my favorites on this album – Daedelus or Shigeto, but the tracks are still weak? Where is the title “breakthrough”? The only song that defended itself and for a moment pulled me out of my mindless disengagement with listening to this album is Nissim – a very oriental track that did what it did probably only because I have a weakness for such sounds. Because it’s still not The Gaslamp Killer!
I think I’ve experienced what people in San Diego experienced when, as a rookie DJ, Bensunssen murdered parties in the Gaslamp neighborhood (hence his stage name) with his unusual sets. The Gaslamp Killer Killed My Party. Too bad.