Fluke - Progressive History XXX - 3CD retrospective
Released 16/9/02 - Virgin Records
A pioneering electronic dance act that made a good-sized dent in the UK charts as well as inroads into America (when it belatedly embraced 'electronica' in the mid 90s), Fluke started out recording quirky house-pop before branching out into what was dubbed 'trip hop' and then big-beat infused techno. Such a glib potted history doesn¹t do them justice, however, as they're music has embraced so many different styles over the years, evolving in more subtle fashion than those generic terms might suggest.
Inspired by the forward-thinking productions of Trevor Horn and his colleagues at the ZTT label, they started making music in 1986. Lifelong friends Mike Bryant, Mike Tournier and Jon Fugler shared a house in High Wycombe that soon began to fill up with keyboards and gadgets as their experiments took shape.
Within a couple of years Acid House and the thriving scene it begat in the towns surrounding London would change their lives. It was a similar story for many future dance music stars.
'That's when we started getting things together seriously. We knew that's where we belonged and we definitely wanted to be part of it,' recounted sometime vocalist and producer Jon several years later.
By the Autumn of 1989, their debut single Thumper had created a mild ripple of interest, and would lead to their first remix commissions. It was followed by the Big Yellow Taxi-sampling Joni in Spring 1990, which led to deal with Creation Records and their debut LP, The Techno Rose of Blighty. Jaunty, robust and melodic house, it's title lampooned that fact that anything vaguely electronic sounding was being tagged as techno at that time.
Although things didn't really gel at Creation, their burgeoning live prowess landed Fluke a deal with Circa/Virgin in April 1991. Four albums followed: the live recording Out (In Essence), the ambitious and intensely trancey Six Wheels On My Wagon, the downbeat, jazzy Oto, and the throbbing break beat grooves of Risotto, which pounded along like Godzilla through Tokyo and featured massive cuts like Atom Bomb and Absurd. Four years after it¹s release, Absurd would soundtrack the opening titles to the Tomb Raider movie, suggesting that Fluke had been somewhat ahead of the game.
Judge for yourself. Spanning more than a decade, the 3 CD collection Progressive History XXX successfully summarises their discography from beginning to end. The first two discs congregate long-deleted 12 inch mixes, white labels and core album tracks. And just as their remix work (think Bjork's Big Time Sensuality) has frequently hit the spot, the third disc highlights many of the finest remixes of their own work by third parties; a personal favourite being the Dust Brothers Jazz Mix of Bullet, a complete reworking that stylishly appropriates a couple of slices of Young-Holt Unlimited's 1973 soul jazz classic Bumpin' on Young Street.
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