| Risotto | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 26 May 1997 | |||
| Recorded | 1996–1997 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 73:22 | |||
| Label | Circa, Astralwerks | |||
| Producer | Fluke | |||
| Fluke chronology | ||||
| ||||
Risotto is the fourth album by British electronica group Fluke. The album was released on 26 May 1997 by Circa Records and 30 September 1997 by Astralwerks. It was the band's last album recorded with Mike Tournier.
The album is named after the dish risotto (Italian: [riˈzɔtto] ). The album artwork was designed by The Designers Republic and features a chrome-plated KitchenAid mixer.
Many of the tracks that brought Fluke to a larger audience are featured on this album, including "Atom Bomb", used on the Wipeout 2097 soundtrack, [1] [2] [3] and "Absurd," used in many films/trailers, including a 1998 Volkswagen Beetle commercial, Sin City in 2005, and the episode "Chaos" from the show Spaced . "Absurd" is also used as the main theme for Sky Sports'Monday Night Football program first from August 1997 to May 1998 and since August 2010 to the current day. [1] [4] [5]
When Fluke was touring for Risotto they were joined on stage by Rachel Stewart who acted as a personification of the band's official mascot, a character from the Wipeout series named Arial Tetsuo. Stewart continued as lead female vocalist and as a dancer for all of Fluke's live performances between 1997 and 1999.
After touring for a year with Risotto on the American "Electric Highway Tour", and having made two appearances at the Glastonbury festival in 1995 and 1998, Tournier decided to leave the group to pursue a different project named Syntax, with the band's long standing friend, Jan Burton. [6] In 2002, The Fluke DJs were formed, a live-show pairing of Jon Fugler and Hugh Bryder. Bryder was a DJ who had assisted Fluke in their live performances since 1993 as well as working with other DJs such as Seb Fontaine while holding a DJ residency at MTV's special event parties. [7] This seemed to indicate further rifts within the band as this DJ combination included neither Mike Bryant nor Tournier. [8] However, Fugler denied these rumours shortly after they surfaced claiming that the band merely needed some time away from each other after their intense work on Risotto. [9]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [10] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B [11] |
| The Guardian |  [12] |
| Muzik | 8/10 [13] |
| Pitchfork | 9.0/10 [14] |
Risotto was perhaps the most favourably reviewed of all Fluke's albums with David Bennun of The Guardian writing:
Risotto pushes forward Fluke's slick, sophisticated techno at a relentless pace. Sometimes, on Absurd, Atom Bomb and especially the top-notch Squirt, it takes a terrier-like grip on your concentration, with the muted vocals hissing in your head like Martian broadcasts arriving through your fillings. [12]
Writing for Melody Maker in October 1997, Neil Kulkarni gave Risotto a very positive review, singling out the album's lyrics as a highlight; "[Fluke] have the dumbest greatest deepest lyrics in dance – "Baby's got an atom-bomb/a motherfuckin' atom bomb" is the greatest heavy metal lyric never written; "Anybody with a heart votes love" is a chorus Stevie Wonder would be proud of; "Think big that's only half as large/Bigger, better, twice as hard" is Ooompah-Loompah haiku made pop poetry." [15]
The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.
Norman Quentin Cook, also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the Hull-based indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split up, Cook formed the electronic band Beats International in Brighton, who produced the number-one single "Dub Be Good to Me". He then played in Freak Power, Pizzaman, and the Mighty Dub Katz with moderate success.
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to refer to electronic music generally.
Faithless are an English dance music band that formed in 1995, with its core members being Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz. Their first album, Reverence, was released in 1996 and their most recent, All Blessed, in 2020. They have sold millions of physical records, and their catalogue has been uploaded to streaming sites in 2018. They average almost 3 million streams a month. Faithless' records have charted at #1 in numerous countries and they were voted the 4th greatest dance band of all time by Mixmag.
Astralwerks is an American record label primarily focused on electronic music that is now owned by Universal Music Group. Its material is distributed via Capitol Music Group in the United States. The label was founded in 1993 and, in its early years, featured prominent British acts like The Future Sound of London, Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers. In recent years, its roster has expanded to include acts like Halsey, Marshmello, Porter Robinson, Illenium, Zhu and numerous others. In 2018, Astralwerks' headquarters were moved from its original home of New York City to Los Angeles.
Dig Your Own Hole is the second studio album by the English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers. It was released on 7 April 1997 in the United Kingdom by Freestyle Dust and Virgin Records and in the United States by Astralwerks. It was recorded between 1995 and 1997, and features Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Beth Orton as guest vocalists.
Fluke was an English electronic music group formed in the late 1980s by Mike Bryant, Jon Fugler and Mike Tournier. The band were noted for their diverse range of electronic styles, including house, techno, ambient, big beat and downtempo; for their reclusivity, rarely giving interviews; and for lengthy timespans between albums.
Puppy is the fifth and final album by British electronica group Fluke, first released on 18 August 2003. The album contains a variety of genres, spanning from house to ambient and even including a blues track, "Blue Sky".
Progressive History XXX is a three-disc compilation album by British electronica group Fluke, first released in September 2002. It is not to be confused with Progressive History X, their previous one-disc compilation album. Artwork was again David Bethell's "Just Your Average Second On This Planet" 1997-1998 (Discotheque) but this time came in four gloss print versions of black, red, white and blue. A free poster also contained the silhouette image on one side with all other album covers portrayed on the flip. Progressive History XXX is a three CD box-set including many rare and hard to find mixes.
Progressive History X is a compilation album by British electronica group Fluke, first released in July 2001. It is not to be confused with Progressive History XXX, their next compilation album. The cover artwork is from "Just your Average Second On This Planet" 1997-1998 (Discotheque) by David Bethell. Progressive History X is a compilation spanning their entire ten year producing history.
Six Wheels on My Wagon is the second album by British electronic music group Fluke, released on 7 October 1993. The title parodies that of the song "Three Wheels on My Wagon", from the early 1960s. The most prominent track on the album, "Slid" is featured in the 1993 Phillip Noyce film Sliver as well as being a club favourite of popular DJ Sasha.
The Techno Rose of Blighty is the debut album by British electronic music group Fluke, released in 1991.
Syntax was an English electronic music group originally formed in 2000 by the musicians Jan Burton and Mike Tournier. They are best known for the songs "Destiny", "Bliss" and "Pride".
Simian were an English rock band, formed in Manchester in 2000.
Michael James Tournier is an English electronic musician, and one of the co-founders of the electronic music group Fluke, along with Mike Bryant and Jon Fugler. He first met with other members of Fluke in High Wycombe where he had been involved, along with Jon Fugler, in a band called Skin; the lineup to this band consisting of Tournier, Fugler, Mike Bryant, Karen Smith, and Guy Lewis. They were managed by Julian Nugent.
Jan Burton is a Welsh record producer and vocalist, best known for his work with ex-Fluke member Mike Tournier in their joint project, Syntax. In December 2017, Burton announced that he was engaged in his first solo project.
"Atom Bomb" is a single by the English electronic music band Fluke, released on 28 October 1996 at Circa and in 1997 at Caroline Records. Originally created for the soundtrack to the video game Wipeout 2097 and later featured in Gran Turismo, the track reached #20 in the UK music charts and brought Fluke their first non-club mainstream single. This song is also featured in part in other productions, including the films The Saint, Kiss the Girls, X-Men and Behind Enemy Lines, the theatrical trailers for Paparazzi and The Bourne Ultimatum, and the video game Enter the Matrix.
2 Bit Pie was an English electronic music group formed in 2005 as a collaboration between Fluke and many other musicians, some of whom had previously worked with Fluke, and others who already had significant experience within the music industry, such as Andy Gray.
Joel Thomas Zimmerman, known professionally as Deadmau5, is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house and electro house music, though he also produces and DJs other genres of electronic music, including techno under the alias Testpilot. Zimmerman has received six Grammy Award nominations for his work.
The atom bomb is a nuclear weapon.
