Sneaker Pimps: Becoming X Vinyl 2LP Sneaker Pimps

I’ve been surprised to learn in the past few years that different people have different touchstones with this record; for most its the Nellee Hooper mix of “6 Underground” which was inescapable in 1996, for DJs and house heads its “Spin Spin Sugar” (the dark garage mix is one of Armand Van Helden’s greatest remixes). For me it’s actually the title track, which I randomly found on a Napster trip-hop deep dive 20 years ago. Surprisingly, for such a cool and big record, it’s always been hard to find on wax (One Little Indian must be focusing their resources on keeping Bjork’s catalog in print, for which we’re eternally grateful). Sneaker Pimps started out as a duo recording instrumental trip-hop but decided they wanted to incorporate vocals for their debut album, and Kelli Dayton was recruited after they spotted her singing in a pub. She was kicked out of the band after this record because the other blokes stupidly thought they could handle the vocals themselves (*Julia Roberts voice* “big mistake… huge!”). The overall production will be familiar to anyone versed in the sounds of Cool Britannia™, but taken as a set of 11 distinct pop songs, Becoming X rises above all the other moody fondue music of the time as perfectly-distilled pop – this could easily be a Massive Attack-produced Madonna album. In addition to the aforementioned big tracks, check out “Post-Modern Sleaze,” Portishead-by-numbers “Walking Zero” and the more textural pieces like “Waterbaby” and “How Do.” Black double vinyl pressing with glossy printed inner sleeves, full album lyrics and liner notes.

**It should be noted that this pressing is not entirely faithful to the original incarnation of the album – it contains the more well-known remix versions of “6 Underground,” “Becoming X,” “Spin Spin Sugar” and “Post-Modern Sleaze” as opposed to the original album versions; check the audio tab for samples.

• double vinyl pressing
• glossy printed inner sleeves
• music label: One Little Indian 2019

reviewed by laughable butane bob 11/2019