Virginia Slims may have appropriated the phrase "you've come a long way, baby" back when smoking was actually cool, but Housemartin-gone-technofunker Fatboy Slim is now looking to put his own hip spin on the hackneyed slogan.
Slim -- a k a Norman Cook -- jetted back to England yesterday to put the finishing touches on You've Come A Long Way, Baby, his tentatively titled follow-up to 1996's Better Living Through Chemistry. The DJ was in town performing at Wednesday's AMP 2 release party at New York's Bowery Ballroom alongside the Jungle Brothers, Propellerheads' Alex Gifford and Scott Hardkiss.
The album, recorded in its entirety at Fatboy's House of Love home studio in Brighton, England, will likely contain eleven remixes of original material. A Fatboy spokesman notes, however, that fans will certainly recognize samples in the mix. Though the record should be finished some time next week, Slim's label, Astralwerks, doesn't plan to release the disc in the States and the U.K. until Oct. 6.
Slim will return to the States for a series of DJ gigs this fall.
ARI BENDERSKY
(July 24, 1998)