Theo Keating – AKA DJ Touché - has been creating club-functional tunes for over twenty years. His most high profile moment was as half of The Wiseguys whose song "Ooh La La" was unavoidable in the late Nineties, both in nightclubs and on TV ads. Nowadays he has a secure career on the global DJ circuit, grounded in his eclectic taste and turntable skills developed as a teenage B-boy, but he appears restless, always exploring new areas. His Black Ghosts project with ex-Simian singer Simon Lord, loosely based around the theoretical intersection of dance music and horror films, never came to much but his initially anonymous Fake Blood persona has become a hit with clubbers, DJs and festival-goers.
Cells, then, is not so much an album as a collection of dance tunes. It locates an accessible and enjoyable interface between underground bite, crowd-pleasing house and geeky electronic reference points. The beat is 4/4 but a cool throb rather than crass banging, and there are likeable nods to film composers such as John Carpenter and even Bernard Herrmann, as well as Mike Oldfield and, on “Sideshow”, a cheerfully direct lift from Giorgio Moroder’s deathless “I Feel Love” synth line.
There are a couple of stinkers on board, where Keating sticks pop-rock vocals to the fore of an otherwise decent tune, as on the catchy disco-pop-soul of “All In A Blink” – which, admittedly, has hit potential but is still annoying – and the equally naff “Let It Go”. However, he more than makes up for these with superbly wriggly floor-fodder such as “Another World”, which sounds like a folk jig completely re-rendered as techno by artificial intelligences, or the enigmatic minor key groove and moody chorus of “Soft Machine”. Primarily, Fake Blood keeps things bouncy and rolling, his sounds juicy and intriguing. Those who enjoy working up a sweat to non-chart dance music but don’t want a severe sonic challenge will find much to enjoy.
Listen to 'Yes/No'
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