My rant

Around last Christmas I finally ordered online Fatboy Slim's new mix album "Bondi Beach" which was only available in Australia. It was a big letdown. Clinical, boring and unenthusiastic mix without a hint of that big beat flavour. I wondered whether Fatboy had just chosen the songs and then someone had mixed them together with a computer since the flawless mixes differed enormously from Norman's live mixing.

Lately Norman hasn't done anything to get me excited. He has jumped from the breaks side to the funky house bandwagon. His live mixing is horrible from structure to beatmatching. I can't deny that he is a great entertainer but in my books he no longer is the great DJ he used to be. Recently I listened to his mix from 1996. Amazing tunes with real depth and great flow. Just a sheer delight. Obviously the fact that I enjoy breaks more than house has a lot do to with my disappointment towards Norman's current music and mixing. Breaks genre also fits his drunken "I can't be bothered" mixing style better than house.

It seems like everything has gone wrong since "Palookaville" came along. The first time I heard the album it was a huge disappointment. I was crushed. Nowdays I like it but it's still just a good album among many others, not an amazing album which I would feel compelled to listen to over and over and over again. Not like the previous albums.

For a long time now updating the site and keeping up with what's going on has been more like a job than a fun hobby. Back in June 2003 there was only a small Norman Cook / Fatboy Slim section on the first version of The Aritu. Then in March the next year The Aritu went through a drastic change and Fatboy filled half of the site which was now also bilingual. Slowly the number of visitors has gone up and these days it's 10-25 visitors per day.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading these pages and special thanks to those who have helped me with Fatboy related things. I just can't be bothered anymore...

Arttu Salminen
March 2, 2006