The BPA

The Brighton Port Authority project sees Brighton beat-meister Fatboy Slim, a.k.a. Norman Cook, stepping back into the pop world with a little help from a dozen or so good friends. Some—such as Iggy Pop, who seems gung ho for this sort of crossover dance track these days—are more famous than others. (Who the hell is this Connan Mockasin? one might wonder.) But Cook’s new gang is too kooky, his sounds too quirky, to produce any Jock Jams hockey-arena hits.

There have been rumblings that Big Beat—the brash, drum-heavy arm of electronica that stormed pop charts in the late ’90s—is coming back. Even Midfield General, genre-defining Skint Records owner Damian Harris, released an album a few months back. But with Gonna Need a Bigger Boat, the niche’s foremost commercial artist concedes that the program needs to be vigorously revamped in the wake of Mark Ronson’s hooky neosoul hits.

The single “Toe Jam” with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal, which has gotten some heat via a cheeky nudity-laden YouTube video, finds Cook playing up an island groove that brings out the best in both artists. Iggy’s turn on “He’s Frank” would be much better without the bare-chested rocker, but elsewhere BPA sparkles. Cook uses trashy sounds and holds the magnificent dancehall bangers together with duct tape—not so odd considering he’s made No. 1 hits on an old Atari computer with half the memory of your digital watch.

The former Housemartins bassist’s real ace in the hole is his Englishness. While nearly every vocal-heavy track would arguably work better as an instrumental, the relative anonymity of most of his U.K. cohorts in the project—the likes of singer-songwriter Emmy the Great and house stylist Justin Robertson may never be heard in these parts again—grants some sense of discovery in returning to Fatboy’s recycled world.

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