Are U OK? is a shot of sleazy New York nightlife. Shining a strobe on the city’s dirty, druggy, dangerous side. The producer, Teddy Stuart, has surely been listening to Paranoid London, since his drum machines and distorted bass grind out a similar rough, raw, acid jack. PL’s Eating Glue is the template here, with Magall van Caloen swapping for Mulato Pintado, as she role plays a random rave encounter. Sounding, initially, concerned. Stopping a stranger and observing “you look properly fucked up”. The question “what did you take?” drops everything into an echoed K-hole. 

A Freak Nasty mix, however, reveals our heroine to be one of those people you meet who might appear sympathetic to your plight, but end up deliberately messing with your altered state. Pushing and pulling your battered brain about like a puppet for their own amusement / entertainment. They themselves can be partly excused, ’cos without a doubt they’re also incredibly high, but something mischievous / malevolent moves into their tone and actions. 

As the music hits a bit faster, harder, more Green Velvet, James “Jack Rabbit” Martin, if you could speak you would definitely be saying, “No I don’t want to sit down.” As the peak begins passing you might start to wish they’d just get lost and just let you dance it off. Their buzz becoming negative… but then you’ll be thinking there’s a chance you could get laid. Only to be left stranded, alone, in the parking lot. 

Salt Queen’s Are U OK? can be ordered directly from Samples From Mars.