Steve 'Flash' JuonIf you don’t envy Keith Thornton’s life that’s only because you haven’t given it any thought before now. The rapper of a thousand names known most frequently as Kool Keith has obviously banked enough in his career to indulge in any vanity project he likes. As a guy who seemingly lives a modest life (you don’t hear about him buying a Bentley every week and he doesn’t sport a half-dozen iced out chains in every photo) the royalties from “Dr. Octagon” alone probably cover his expenditures. I respect the fact he can do whatever the hell he wants, whenever he wants, and not worry about whether or not it’s commercially successful.
“Black Elvis and Dr. Dooom robbed a porno shop/just got off a pursuit by two cops”
“Space Goretex” is the latest in another long list of those indulgences. Mr. Thornton introduced me to a term I had never heard in music before on this one — powerviolence. Just as rap has many different sub-genres with different styles, punk rock has an equally diverse list of variants, and apparently Nashville group Thetan is one of the leaders in that subset. I say “apparently” because when you try to look them up you usually get references to South Park (or other things that mock the concept of thetans). I also say “apparently” because powerviolence is described as being “dissonant and fast” while most of the the songs on “Space Goretex” are coherent and chill.
It’s borderline confusing how rational songs like “Robots on the Automators” sound. Kool Keith fans are used to how bugged out he can be, and working with an extreme punk band would be the perfect way to indulge his wildest rock and roll fantasies. While some tracks like “Complicated Trip” seem like they’d be more at home on “Sex Style,” that just makes them all the more normal for Mr. Thornton. His lyrical exploits often put Hugh Hefner to shame and for him to talk about fat titties and juicy pussy is actually expected and hardly qualifies as explicit except to the most prudish of Karens.
I kept searching “Space Goretex” for that hardcore punk sound, but that’s my own failing for expecting powerviolence to sound like the Sex Pistols or the Ramones. It just shows I know less about punk music than I thought before this review began. What I do know though is that Keith could have called this album “Sex Style 2: Keith Sexes Up Outer Space” and it would have drawn more attention. Songs like “Gaping Black Hole” aren’t even pretending to be about anything other than the double entendre you’d expect. Thetan’s style (whatever that style might be) seems perfectly suited to his level of debauchery. They slap that bass funk coming straight out the other side of the black hole “In Pursuit of Vagina Lucy.” Unlike some of Keith’s more questionable indulgences, this one actually has a beat you can bop your head to.
“Space Goretex” seems to have been largely overlooked. Keith’s output is so prodigious that it’s to be expected that a few projects fall between the cracks (or in his case cheeks) but this one genuinely deserves more notoriety. You can’t listen to it and say that Keith Thornton breaks any new ground, but at least he revisits a comfortable old stomping ground and gives it a new coat of paint with Thetan’s help.