Pan/Tone's return to full-length work after a five-year break is part progression, part recapitulation -- no sin as such, since in part it is the continuity of the ever echoing sonic impact of house and techno that keeps the live-wire nature of that music alive rather than being a museum. Sometimes the nods are a bit overt -- the "Revised Mix" of "Dirty Deeds" seems to call the dawn of the '90s back note for note -- but at its best,
Skip the Foreplay is a good listen, though perhaps not a great one. When thought of as a collection of individual parts, though, it can often be stellar. Interestingly,
Depeche Mode's prime mid-'80s work gets referenced not once but twice, on both "Lost Highways" and even more clearly on "Touchy-Feely," while the schaffel trend that group predicted with its monstrous single "Personal Jesus" informs this album's "Muckefuk." Still, it's hardly just a tribute to Basildon's finest -- thus "Touchy-Feely" also plays around with male and female vocals, mostly wordless, that evoke emotional ecstasy in deft ways, while "Shame" and its full-on retro funk guitars (not to mention a lovely synth string break) and the '70s synth noises on "Makers Mark" show
Pan/Tone's ear for all kinds of dance possibilities old and new. Other songs of note include "Broken English" -- not a cover of
Marianne Faithfull, instead more of a dinky science documentary theme interpretation (and why not?) -- and the fine closer, "Street Meat." ~ Ned Raggett