Review
Genre and Mood
Mount Sims and Toby Dammit join forces on What’s the Big Deal, and the result moves away from the glossy club sound of electroclash toward something scuffed and restless. Electronic textures, electro rhythm and a post-punk shrug meet in a mood that is edgy, ironic and raw, the song of someone who has seen the party wind down and is not impressed.
Song Summary
The title is a question asked with a raised eyebrow, and the track carries that attitude throughout. Mount Sims brings his cool, deadpan delivery and synthetic textures, and Toby Dammit, a seasoned rock drummer, plays the drums, which gives the track its looser, more physical feel. The memorable detail is that tension between machine and hands, a groove that feels programmed and played at once.
Musical Breakdown
Intro
A tight beat and a gritty synth line start the track with no ceremony, a little rough around the edges on purpose.
Verse 1
The vocal arrives flat and sardonic, more attitude than melody, while the rhythm section keeps nudging forward underneath.
Chorus
The title line becomes the hook, repeated with a sneer. The arrangement thickens just enough to give it weight without losing the dry humour.
Bridge
A short break shifts the focus to the drums and the textures, the groove stripped down to its skeleton before it rebuilds.
Outro
The track ends without a grand gesture, more of a shrug than a finale, which is exactly the point of the question it asks.
Concepts in Focus
Mount Sims began in electroclash, the early-2000s fusion of 1980s electro and synth-pop with techno and deadpan irony; his debut UltraSex came out on DJ Hell’s International DeeJay Gigolo Records in 2002. This track keeps the deadpan, but by 2008 his music had turned toward post-punk and darkwave, and a rock drummer on the record is the clearest sign of that turn.
What makes the turn audible is the groove. A drum machine repeats with perfect regularity; a drummer pushes and pulls against the beat. Toby Dammit’s playing gives the track a restless feel that the synth parts alone would not have. Compare the slower, heavier Mount Sims – Grave from the same album, where André Lang plays the drums.
Artistic Context
Mount Sims is the American producer Matthew Sims, born in Milwaukee and based in Berlin, whose debut UltraSex came out on International DeeJay Gigolo Records in 2002. Toby Dammit is the stage name of the drummer Larry Mullins, known for his work with Iggy Pop and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. “What’s the Big Deal?” is the seventh of twelve tracks on Happily Ever After, released in October 2008 on Hungry Eye Records, written, performed and produced by Sims, with production and mixing by Thomas Stern of Crime & the City Solution. The album is credited to Mount Sims alone; Toby Dammit is credited for the drums on this track.
Impact and Reception
Happily Ever After was a low-key release, noticed mostly by followers of Mount Sims’ earlier records. That makes this track a fascinating footnote: the sound of an electroclash artist growing out of his scene. It belongs on this playground next to “How We Do” and “Good Service”. Listen to all three in a row and hear the change.
