The BPA

Introduced with a flimsy and fairly nonsensical invented back story about some long-lost tapes discovered in a dockside warehouse, the Brighton Port Authority is in actuality a new project spearheaded by <a href="spotify:artist:4OQG8ttceevCWluX1i2BdO">Norman Cook</a>, the electronic producer better known as <a href="spotify:artist:4Y7tXHSEejGu1vQ9bwDdXW">Fatboy Slim</a>. After achieving notoriety as perhaps the most visible proponent of Big Beat electronica, <a href="spotify:artist:4OQG8ttceevCWluX1i2BdO">Cook</a> kept a low profile since his late-'90s heyday, releasing only one (generally disregarded) <a href="spotify:artist:4Y7tXHSEejGu1vQ9bwDdXW">Fatboy Slim</a> album in the 2000s, but the BPA marked the return of his goofy humor and affable good-times vibe. In keeping with the loose '70s-era timeframe of the backstory, the new material was relatively light on electronic breakbeats and heavy on collaborations with (as <a href="spotify:artist:4OQG8ttceevCWluX1i2BdO">Cook</a> put it) "real musicians," though his sonic fingerprints were still readily recognizable. The lengthy roll-call of participants included <a href="spotify:artist:4OQG8ttceevCWluX1i2BdO">Cook</a>'s longtime co-conspirator Simon Thornton, fellow '90s electronica stalwarts <a href="spotify:artist:0xaL1FrIjMQ2S4E6qmksMf">Justin Robertson</a> (of <a href="spotify:artist:7bbNDyqoHKXXk7GYxigXa1">Lionrock</a>) and <a href="spotify:artist:7gs54cZveSV3kraHmiGYDr">Ashley Beedle</a>, rappers Lateef and <a href="spotify:artist:0gusqTJKxtU1UTmNRMHZcv">Dizzee Rascal</a>, singer/songwriters <a href="spotify:artist:67pQ8Yr09zDDzzwWw3EG9R">Martha Wainwright</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3Rsr4Z96O6U3lToOiV3zBh">Jamie T.</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1VyVjE6tvQiM8T8a3WcYQd">Jack Peñate</a>, and up-and-comer <a href="spotify:artist:3BniKY9Gw01zy21IDlVhaM">Emmy the Great</a>, along with genuine legends <a href="spotify:artist:33EUXrFKGjpUSGacqEHhU4">Iggy Pop</a> (on a cover of <a href="spotify:artist:6TR7TYiDiS5okigndyMIpK">the Monochrome Set</a>'s "He's Frank," supposedly recorded four years before the original) and <a href="spotify:artist:20vuBdFblWUo2FCOvUzusB">David Byrne</a> (on the sprightly single "Toe Jam," which earned some pre-release attention for its clever, faux-risqué video.) The BPA's debut I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat, a hodgepodge of classic pop/rock, soul, ska, reggae, punk, and hip-hop, was released in early 2009. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi