The follow-up to the curiously unreleased first part of the Hot Sauce Committee is a proper Beastie Boys album: clean, funky, noisy, funny, annoying (the voices that never broke) and spectacular all at the same time. There’s no time for a boring band biography here though; the Beastie Boys have been around for 22 years and you guys should know your classics. An interpretation of the music is what you’re getting instead. And the contents of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two are so diverse that I am going to do that favourite track by favourite track.
On ‘Lee Majors Come Again’ the boys are going back to their noisy punk roots and the result is not funny: superb drumming, beautiful noise and several smart moodswings. And wasn’t disco the traditional antipole of punk? Sure, but that doesn’t keep the trio away from trying out some of the genre’s yummiest basslines on the aptly named ‘Funky Donkey’. Further down the track, ‘Tadlock’s Glasses’ is the Beasties’ take on psychedelic library music. However nerdy, the New Yorkers don’t forget to incorporate a massive drop that is so ridiculously nod-inducing it might break a few necks here and there. ‘Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament’ is the album’s instrumental, funk and triphop-flavoured intermezzo that not only gives you the chance to realize these boys survived the Cold War but also gets you ready for the second round of teenage-style yelling by this vital bunch of going-on-fifties.
The most notable guest appearance comes from Diplo’s most talented protégé Santigold. She sings much like she does on her own albums while the boys scream on ‘Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win’, a bouncy upbeat dub cut. On the childishly titled track ‘Too Many Rappers’, Nas doesn’t do a bad job either and that’s as far as the guest appearances go; you wonder how many people with good intentions must have been rejected and insulted.
Good on you for being picky Beastie Boys as you have stayed true to your own sound once again without being superfluous. Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is a wonderful collection of distorted funk that will go down well with anybody who doesn’t mind middle aged men screaming like kids. Have a listen.
