by Dean Carlson
Space Raiders' Don't Be Daft was released at the very nadir of big beat, long after much of the dance community had moved on, and the music press ripped the album to shreds, acting like vicious aesthetic jackals circling in for the kill. But it survives on its own merits after a bit of distance. &(I Need The) Disko Doktor& and &Glam Raid& remain sturdy examples of electro-stuttering frivolity, and when it came down to it, listeners accepted the fact that if the band wanted to sketch out what it would be like if a graphic calculator were to seduce a troll, they had every right to tackle it with as much clever initiative at their disposal. Nobody had asked for an LP of hillbilly big beat, but that's the exact reason why Don't Be Daft succeeds, iconoclastic in its own maligned traditions.