Tag Archives: Album

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Chemical Brothers – We are the Night

Leave a comment

Listening to the Chemical Brothers is a little like eating at your favourite restaurant every day for a year. You know exactly what you’re going to get, and as time passes it’s not as great as it should be, but you keep heading back simply because of the familiarity and the cute waitresses. But, even if the waitresses were offering blowjobs, it’s very hard to continue servicing this establishment.

The album starts off strong with the title track, ‘We Are The Night’, which whilst stereotypically Chemical Brothers still maintains some of Tom and Ed’s genius in melding sounds that shouldn’t go together into a groovy whole. Disclaimer – Strong, in context of this album is a bit like celery that’s been in the sun for 3 days.

‘All Rights Reversed’ sees the first collaboration on the album which happens to be the Klaxtons, who I think are overrated anyway, and this does nothing to discourage that belief. It’s just plain boring. ‘Saturate’ is another throw away track, sounding like the most generic house track possible, whilst ‘Do It Again’ featuring Ali Love sounds like the most generic electro track possible. When will people learn that electro and house is not good music? It was good music 10 or 20 years ago when these sounds were fresh to ears not used to electronic sounds, but in a day and age where even coffee cups beep it’s just stupid.

‘Das Spiegal’ is a bit of fun, with accordions sounding synths squeaking over the Chemicals signature beats. ‘The Salmon Dance’ with Fatlips is also a bit of fun, easily a favourite, although I have a love of songs about fish. ‘Burst Generator’ is possibly the closest they come to their old glory days, but it’s destroyed by the ‘A Modern Midnight Conversation’ which follows it. This tune with its Thompson Twins vocals and 80s mentality is bound to be featured in a dance scene in this season of Queer as Folk. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s a time and a place for that and it’s not after a really rocking track.

Battle Scars with Willy Mason is forgettable, Harpoons is too much like a too long interlude between tracks, and ‘The Pills Won’t Help You Know’ featuring Midlake pretty much says it all – no matter what drugs made you enjoy the Chemical Brothers in the past, they’re not going to help you get over how average this album is.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Beastie Boys – The Mix-Up

Leave a comment

When I reviewed Beastie Boys’ To The 5 Boroughs, I lamented there seemed to be something missing, and noted that it could be the instrumentals. Well, after a slight 3 year gap, we have a new Beastie’s album that is entirely instrumental, and it indeed does fill a gap that is sorely missed.

The Beastie’s instrumentals have always been pretty unique in their sound, and this album is no different. Blending a mix of genres, the whole album is full of wonderful tunes that reflect all the Beastie’s influences. There are tracks like Kangaroo Rat which are clearly influenced by the 1970s funky police show sound tracks, whilst Freaky Hijiki, reflect a more psychedelic surfer laced guitar tracks. Dramastically Different has an almost Middle Eastern feel to it.

Suco De Tangerina, is a nod to the Latin guitarists, and The Gala Event, is a slower, deeper track that wouldn’t be amiss on a “trip hop” compilation from the 90s. Then there’s tracks like Off the Grid, which starts out slow and funky, then drops into a wall of noise that recalls their punk roots. The Rat Cage has a post-punk mentality, with its heavy driving bass making me recall the Pixies every time I hear it begin.

One of my favourite aspects of the album is the sense of fun injected into the record. The muted chatting between the songs, the whistling and cheering at the end of songs, and the hand claps to the beats and random blow whistle blasts give a real sense that this is just the boy’s jamming in a garage, rather than locked up in a studio doing take after take.

Some people might not like the laid back attitude of the songs, especially considering their previous hits, but I enjoy the languid beats and funky wah guitar sounds and groovy Rhodes keyboard sounds. This isn’t the sound of aging hiphop stars who refuse to go out ungracefully, nor a group catering to an audience that’s grown old with them, but a group of people who wanted to do something different and have fun doing it.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

DJ Shadow – The Outsider

Leave a comment

Many people are going to listen to ‘The Outsider’ and simply think Shadow has sold out. The ‘hiffy’ (Bay Area’s latest hiphop fad) rapping about bitches and bling isn’t exactly what Shadow fans have come to expect of him. However, I think it’s more that Shadow wanted to do something different. If he wanted to go commercial, why chose relatively unknown rappers? Sure, Shadow and Eminem might be a ridiculous notion, but so is the notion that he has sold out for fame, profit and glory, especially in context of the album as a whole.

The release starts strong, with a poetic introduction talking about an Outsider who comes to save the population from evil forces. It could be something to begin a Manga film. The first track, This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way) is basically Shadow telling everyone to get fucked because he’s doing what he’s doing, and doesn’t care what people think. The singer is not mentioned, but it’s a great soulful track, harking back to the late 70s for inspiration.

He then proceeds to bombard us with rap that is pretty damn average. Keak and Turf on 3freaks, Droop-E on the creatively titled Droop-E Drop, and Banner’s Seein Thangs could all be rapping about third world poverty, but it’s so typical in style and structure of the popular (and in my opinion) dull RnB style, it lost me the moment they opened their mouths. On subsequent listening, it is all about bitches and bling anyway. It is all so generic and boring that it’s almost as if it’s a cynical satirical homage to the music.

In reality, it probably demonstrates Shadow should stick to making solid beats for good MCs like Gift of Gab or singers like Thom Yorke. Because the album does get better. Broken Levee Blues is a nice little slide guitar blues number. Artifact sounds like someone let a speed addict lose on a drum machine and guitar in the 1980s – very alternative for a ‘commercial’ album. It reminds me a little of The Dead Kennedy’s. Backstage Girl is a cautionary tale of Myspace fans, featuring Phonte Coleman on vocals, and is comparable to ‘The Private Press’s Mashin’ On The Motorway. That is, it’s damn good.

Triplicate/Something Happened That Day is also an odd number for a someone who’s supposedly sold out – there’s no beat; just guitar, piano and wind instrument creating a haunting piece of music that’s typical of Shadow. The Tiger, Erase You and You Made It (the latter two featuring the Thom Yorke sound-a-like Chris James) are very much Shadow in his UNKLE mode. Q-Tip and Lateef bust a party jam with Enuff, but the album closing with a couple more crap raps by E40 on Dats My Part and a “remix” of 3freaks which sounds so like the original I just had to use quotation marks.

I have to admit I am disappointed by The Outsider. There’s enough crap rappers about going on how much of a bitchin’ n-word they are that I feel Shadow’s talent is wasted here. Shadow has always been an outsider though, and this album just goes to show how willing he is at trying something completely different and unexpected, even if the end result will potentially alienate fans.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Coldcut – Sound Mirrors

Leave a comment

Only a month into 2006 and Coldcut’s ‘Sound Mirrors’ gets my vote for album of the year. Seven years between drinks Coldcut return showing that they haven’t been resting on their laurels, but prove again that the duo of Matt Black and Jonathan Moore have been perfecting their art to the Nth degree.

It begins with the amazing single Everything Is Under Control featuring Mike Ladd and Jon “Blues Explosion” Spencer, a slamming big and beautiful beat fest with screaming guitars and potent vocals. True Skool features Ninja Tune prodigy Roots Manuva in a standout hiphop, bouncy dancehall number that is a joy to listen to. Man In a Garage brings the tempo down, with a bluesy, broken beat journey through beautiful lyrics.

Robert Owens lends his stunning voice to Walk a Mile, a fabulously powerful soulful ballad that rivals anything done by contemporary R&B singers Kayne West or John Legend. Mr Nichols is a wonderful, wistful number featuring Saul Williams’ brilliant poetry about the condition of modern urban man. The title track, Sound Mirrors, shows Coldcut still likes to experiment with sound and space, creating a haunting, cinematic and somewhat psychotic instrumental piece, akin to UNKLEs dalliances into the weird.

Boogieman returns us to the Jamaican riddim influenced beat of True Skool, although far darker in tone. It is especially fun to listen to in headphones, and the beats, rhythms and samples are expertly manipulated to scatter across your headspace. This Island Earth similarly features the Jamaican influenced beat, although it breaks down into a fabulous house inspired chorus, reminding us that Coldcut were indeed responsible for classic ‘girly house’ such as Yazz and Lisa Stansfield. Just For the Kick is a storming club classic with a phat beat, in some parts not dissimilar to New Order’s Blue Monday, covered by an uncanny vocal by Annette Peacock that should make sense, only it doesn’t.

Aid Dealer shows Coldcut are just as political as they’ve always been, serving up a stinging indictment against State-sponsored Aid agencies, under which Coldcut’s signature sound cuts from quickly across styles, up there with Jello Biafra’s Every Home is a Prison and Saul Williams Not In Our Name. Ninja labelmate Fog contributes a nasally melancholic vocal over some wonderfully odd music full of theremin and whistling on Whistle and a Prayer, conjuring the ghost of They Might Be Giants or early Ween. Colours the Soul ends the album on a gently psychedelic note, breezy and dreamy.

It’s a big call to say this is Coldcut’s finest work to date, as they’ve achieved so much, but when the world’s best producers outdo themselves with purely outstanding production on memorable, lingering tunes, it becomes simply a given.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Kid Kenobi – Ministry of Sound: Sessions

Leave a comment

Kid Kenobi has been voted Australia’s number 1 DJ in the inthemix.com.au DJ poll for 3 years running. Part of the reason is the fact the poll is very Sydney-centric, but it’s mostly because the boy really can rock. Having recently caught him in Sydney for Park Life 7, I finally understood the talent of the Kid and his MC, Shureshock. And I have to say Kid Kenobi Sessions shows off his talents with a double CD packed with great tunes sublimely mixed.

I have to agree with the liner notes – the first CD does closely match the vibe of their live DJ performances. CD1 is a showcase of the Kid’s breakbeat set, and whilst solid, I found it a touch too soft for my liking. But then again I like my breaks sounding like slowed down dnb, whereas some of this is almost like sped-up house. For a prime example of what I mean, see the first track, Feel Nobody by Sharam Jey and tunes like Deep Dish’s Flashdance and I Got by Fast Crew, which are a little more commercial. However, there are some absolutely rocking tunes here, like Rico Tubbs’ Flashlighter and the Nick Thayer & Bass Kleph remix of Drumattic Twins’ Feelin’ Kinda Strange. MC Sureshock rhymes well over the music, knowing the breakdowns and most importantly for a MC, knowing when to stop busting rhymes!

The second CD took me by surprise, as it features a Dub set by the Kid. Dub is a music that isn’t appreciated as much as it should be here in Australia, being more ‘underground’ than most other forms of dance music, and it may be my biases coming through, but I never expected the Kid to be playing this kind of music, or it featuring on a MOS release.

Taking its inspiration from reggae, it’s more of an electronic form of dope, skanky and smelly but it makes you feel oh so good. The second side features the Richest Man in Babylon by Thievery Corporation, Wicked Beat Sound System with Do The Things, Salmonella Dub and remixes from Dreadzone and Groove Corporation. Towards the end it becomes a little dance hall / two-steppy, with Zinc and the Artful Dodger, and that’s not a bad thing. MC Sureshock’s voice works well, although it’s odd to hear a reggae MC talk about smoking in the sun in Queensland, as opposed to Jamaica.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Pest – All Out Fall Out

Leave a comment

Ninja Tune is renown for releasing quirky, intelligent music, and Pest’s All Out Fall Out certainly falls well within the usual Ninja scope. Their music is essentially undefinable as anything but “Ninja Tune”, crossing the boundaries of funk, jazz, hiphop and ‘dance’. However, unlike some other Ninja Tune releases, which can get a little too arty and pretentious at times, Pest is fun, funky and incredibly danceable.

Pest’s members come from vastly different backgrounds and, looking at it on paper it shouldn’t work. It contains a classically trained cello player, a hiphop DJ/MC, a trombonist from the Bollywood Brass Band, a techno producer and a guitarist who won a Gibson guitar scholarship. However, this menagerie of talent comes together to make some amazingly cool, funky music. Unlike their previous album, this seems less sample based, and more “raw”, but that rawness is an illusion as the music is perfectly produced.

Pat Pong, the first single, is a groovy little number with a very relaxed, lounge feel. The sample that’s cut up through the song, “mother fucking tight”, very probably stolen from a porn film, suits the band in general – bold, brash, and very tight. WuJu is a song that sounds instantly recognisable, but that could just be the extremely Tricky sounding MC / DJ very British brogue rapping “It’s amazing wot we do for the things that we like”.

Ogres has a very nasty techno sounding bassline, whilst Try Again is a fast paced beat fest featuring samples and a dirty bassline, perfect for shaking your rump to. Then there is a tune such as Rumourtism, which starts off with Spanish guitars and the sample off an old ‘get the best from learning’ record they made in the 60s to encourage people to listen and learn. As it rolls along, it becomes a jazz-rock beast of a tune with heavy guitars and blaring horns!

All Out Fall Out has a very quirky sound, and as unlikely as the mash of sounds appears on paper, it all actually works, and works very well. And it works as a ‘listen whilst drinking wine and eating cheese’ as well as something to put on to groove away to in the car, or to pick up the vibe in a lounge club. All told, it’s another great Ninja Tune release!

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Chunk Funk – B-Freak

Leave a comment

Chunk Funk by B-Freak:
A sweet bit of groovy goodness that’s aimed directly at the dancefloor. When listening you can just imagine the booty shaking to the driving rhythm. Heavy beats and oldschool stabs and scratching round off a great track.

Remix by Merka
Merka blends a bit more funk into the mix, giving the whole track a slightly more tech-funk feel, which drops slammingly after the long breakdown. This easily matches the booty shaking goodness of the A side, but provides enough variation to warrant both tracks being played in a single DJ set.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Maximum Bass – Various Artists

Leave a comment

Ok, I’ll admit me picking up this CD had very little to do with how I feel about the MoS label, and everything to do with the buxom, scanty, leather clad babes on the front. But even still, this is another example of why you should never judge a CD by its cover. I initially thought Maximum Bass would be some generic MoS compilation which would make me laugh and deride everyone who likes their usually pedestrian compilations. Imagine my surprise to find that not only was there some decent Breaks on the CD, but the RNB / Hiphop CD was actually quite first-rate as well!

The first CD is Hiphop / RnB, but before rolling your eyes it should be noted that the first tune is the Gorillaz Feel Good Inc, one of the last tunes I’d expect on an RnB compilation. Although it’s all mixed quite well and flows healthily from one track to the next, there’s nothing too exciting here apart from them however, as it features the usual suspects of Chingy, Eminem, DMX, Missy Elliot, and Scribe amongst others. But, on a scale of 1 to 10 of RnB music, this is not as vomit inducing as most RnB mixes.

The second CD is labelled Breaks & House, but thankfully I didn’t notice any House. It’s all Breaks, and it’s all bangin’. It’s similarly well mixed, and although most of the tunes are a few years old, there are some damn good tunes here. Classics like Forme’s Kick a Hole and Ils Next Level are mixed with more modern gems such as the Freesylers Punks and the Deekline / Cut & Run Otta Space, essentially a re-working of the Prodigy’s classic Outer Space, which uses even more vocals from Max Romeo’s I Chased the Devil. Interestingly enough, it finishes off with bass tones, so you can mix or compose your own music.

This CD is obviously aimed at the 20-somethings market with shiny cars and bigger stereos – just look at the cover – but despite this the CD is full of quality tunes that, whilst border on being commercial, aren’t too cheesy. For someone really into Hip hop, R&B or Nu School Breaks, there isn’t really anything special here, but it’s a great introduction to Breaks for those who pick up the CD for the RnB part, being full of bass and heavy beats, but without venturing too far from people’s comfort zone. Conversely, it’s great for those not really into RnB as it represents some of the better music in the genre.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Demon Days – Gorillaz

Leave a comment

Fans have eagerly awaited Gorillaz’s sophomore album for nigh on 4 years, and whilst it has a slightly different feel to the last album, it is still the Gorillaz and still has that “something” that makes it sound different from the abundance of bland hip pop that’s poisoning the airwaves.

Unlike the previous album, production credits go to Danger Mouse for providing the glue that holds it all together, and consequently the album has a less of the gritty hiphop feel provided by Dan The Automator on their self-titled. At first I was a little let down by the sound – production is top notch like the Automator’s, it’s just a little too refined, a little too over processed. But I have to say that despite this initial reaction, the sound has grown on me greatly.

Another minor initial disappointment was the noticeable lack of Del tha Funky Homosapien. Roots Manuva raps across the garagey All Alone, MF Doom appears on November Has Come, and Del La Soul pop up on Feel Good Inc, and they’re all more than fit for the task on this album, and after all, variety is the spice of life.

Demon Days is an evolution in the Gorillaz sound, neither as jarring nor intrusive as the previous album, and I really think this works in its favour. It becomes more of an “album by a band” rather than an offshoot or experiment. That’s not to say the album is conventional or run of the mill – it has a spoken word piece by Dennis Hopper on Fire Coming Out of a Monkey’s Head, and the follow up to Clint Eastwood – aptly titled Dirty Harry – contains the London Community Gospel Choir.

It’s also got some clever crossovers – Madchester legend Shaun Ryder appears on DARE, and even Ike Turner pops up on Every Planet We Reach Is Dead! A diverse range of talent if there ever was one, and with the excellent production and overall cohesiveness the latest from the warped mind of Damon Alban and Jamie Hewlett, this is one of the better albums available this year.

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Amon Tobin – Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Soundtrack

Leave a comment

The Super Mario Brothers theme has been sung by acapella choirs and remixed by the likes of DJ Qbert, proving video game music has come a long way since the early days of 8 bit plinks and plonks. Game designers now realise music is a synchronistic and intrinsic element to their games.

Whilst Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is not the first video game to have a soundtrack released alongside the games’ release, it is the first one produced on the Ninja Tune label, and is quite possible the best one to marry talent and mood flawlessly. Known for his sweeping, atmospheric sound, Amon Tobin simply nails the mood of the game. It is dark, edgy, and stunning.

From the guitar stabs of The Lighthouse, to the drum and bass styled beats of El Cargo, Tobin takes every sound, every sample, and perfectly recreates the world of super spy Sam Fisher. Tobin has been allowed to create the music in his way, and the freedom and attention to detail is simply perfect. He builds stress, tension and action with different sounds and ambience, without ever compromising his definitive and distinctive style.

Tobin has layered each tune to work by itself, as well as work in the game. Each track is almost a mini soundtrack, the mood changing as the track unfolds. Certain sounds and chords are looped throughout each individual tune, and also reprised across the whole album, making the album work on three distinct but intertwined levels – as a soundtrack, as a gameplay device, and simply as music.

As a fan of Amon Tobin, Ninja Tune, Splinter Cell and movie soundtracks, I simply cannot fault this album. Tobin has excelled in bringing his edgy, dramatic and intense sound and making it work as a game soundtrack as well as an individual artist recording.