Richard X was responsible for a wonderful bootleg about two years ago under the name Girls on Top. It spliced Gary Numan’s ‘Are Friends Electric?’ with Adina Howards’ ‘Freak Like Me’. A few short months later, The Sugababes took this cheeky deviant pop smash to the top of the charts, immediately airlifting Richard from the underground to the mainstream.
Even though the whole electoclash/bootleg craze has worn gossamer thin, X-Factor Volume One is the pop-laden soundtrack the ‘movement’ never had. Richard X goes up against Liberty X for a delicious re-working of ‘Being Nobody’ and Spandau Ballet are brought quite literally kicking and screaming and bleeping into the 21st century. Even Kelis and Jarvis Cocker get in on all the fun.
Good as it all is, Richard X is so Lahndan darling. This is fashionista music at its flamboyant attention-seeking best/worst. Expect this to the ubiquitous sound bed for every fashion show from Shoreditch to Milan next season. The seamless flow of tracks is more akin to a DJ set than an album, which also boosts its usefulness considerably.
While this will sound great over a club PA, it won’t stand up to too much home listening. Music to watch pretty catwalk models sashay by.