Collected Reviews Part 1

2008-09-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a whole bunch of reviews i did for Slick DJ for starters... Some of these seem a tad generous in hindsight, and I 'd imagine that's quite a common response that critics have when revisiting their work; then again, none of them seem too cruel... I never wanted to make my reviews page look like a big sticky love-in for a Drum and Bass industry of which I am nothing more than a (paying) consumer and occasional vociferous pundit, but I always wanted to get the point across that there are standards of criticism beyond the merely functional against which good DJ music ought to be compared.

Critical Sound Vol. 1 EP – Critical Critical come correct once again with a diverse double pack with a nice mix of styles. Highlight of the EP by a country mile is Loxy and Naibu’s “Hajime”, a deep half tempo excursion into the sort of dub territories Breakage made a name for himself with. Break drops the long awaited VIP mix of “Timeline” off the All Things Electric CD, adding some funky break edits and twisting the bassline up into a slightly techier flex than the original. Lomax and Kasra’s “Warrior is a bubbly little stepper that’s a bit like a Commix b-side but not quite as good; Inside Info’s “Bog” is a dreary piece of overcompressed shite that unfortunately has much more in common with the contents of a ceramic bog than it does with the splendid wetlands of county Offaly. Should have been a single 12”. 7/10

Fracture & Neptune – Time Will Tell / Sky Song / Medschool London beatsmiths and snack merchants extraordinaire Fracture and Neptune drop some science on Hospital’s increasingly essential sub label for all things innovative; “Time Will Tell” pulls off the seemingly impossible task (and if it’s so damn easy why don’t more people bloody well try and do it?) of marrying intricate break-work with an admirably oversized bassline that goes from “rumbling” to “trouser-browning” and back as swiftly as the breaks switch. “Sky Song” is engaging little roller with a headnodding break scattered with flute samples rolling over a skanking sub bass that switches up to a restrained but grizzly snarl about half way through. Ace. 8/10

Sabre – “Riverside” (Zero T Remix) / Data “Blowpipe” – Lucky Devil Great release this – Zero T does wonders with Sabre’s sleeper hit from a few years back, easing you in gently with smooth chords and handclaps before jazzing the whole thing up with Ritalin-stuffed Amens shattering the breathy dubbed-out female vocals to pieces and beefing the low end up to near Dillinja-esque proportions. One of the loudest records of the summer so far. Data flips the script completely for the b-side, settling into a spooky half speed stomp laced with congas, razor sharp whiplash inducing edits and an assortment of basstones so filthy you’ll want a shower as soon as you hear them. 8.5/10

Klute – Divinity / Hang With Me – Samurai Commercial Suicide head honcho Klute touches down for the second release on this new New Zealand based label, (a rather spiffy blue vinyl 10” in a very pretty sleeve indeed, as it happens – eat that Serato fiends and *spit* CD DJ’s). “Divinity” builds a huge atmosphere from the get go, swirling chords, a grizzly bassline and strings are punctuated by a memorable vocal sample before dropping into a jumbly patchwork of Klute amens and atmospheres, with more variety of musical themes and instrumentation than you’d expect to find in any five tunes by a lesser producer. Sheer class! “Hang With Me” flips the script with some loose-limbed hip hop percussion and some seriously uplifting chords before dropping into cheerfully energetic good vibes and some playfully polyrhythmic euphoria. 9/10

Seba & Krazy - Inkasso - Secret Operations: Secret Operations continue on their quest to give poor Papa Executive some serious trouser-tent-related embarrasment by upping their release schedule to drop this superbly crafted pair of breaky rollers. "Inkasso" brings a pummeling industrial dub feel augmented with crisp, intuitive edits and a rather vague whiff of old Phantom Audio about it. Excellent stuff indeed. Consciousness on the flip is a dreamier deeper affair, with plaintive strings and a bubbling bassline setting the stage for the sort of gloriously crisp, expressive drumwork that rolls out with the elegant flourish of a ninja chick and makes you remember why you
fell in love with this music in the first place. Seriously, i'm choking up here... 4.5/5 EXEC

Paradox - Rivet - Paradox Music: The first solo Paradox 12" in two years, and the title alone has got the heads foaming at the mouth; go ask an older head if you don't get the reference(or your Dad, if you bought this for the trance reviews), but be prepared to sit through a few tales of the far-off days of the mid 90's, when men were men, beats were broken, and Reinforced records ruled the roost from their Dollis Hill Dojo. "Rivet" is an intoxicating storm of scattershot snares deployed with joyful cunning and guile, an admirably chesty sub bass pulse and some tense swirling strings all adding up to an essential release from one of the all-time masters of drum programming himself. One for the beat freaks. 4/5 EXEC

Icicle - Final Stop - Cylon: It's always nice to see a label suddenly reappear after a long slumber! It's been years since I last saw a Cylon release, but if this 12" is anything to go by it's worth keeping
an eye out for more. "Final Stop" has Icicle (in "Broken Fingers" mode) rolling out an interesting and floor-friendly arrangement of pummeling half-time kickdrums, ringing telephones, orchestral stabs and distant snatches of speech. B-side comes courtesy of Rift & Souldrop (nope, me neither) who fall prey to the common schoolboy error of thinking that just because old Phantom Audio tunes had fuck all going on in them that they're easy to copy. Oops. 3/5 EXEC

Instra:mental "Rogue" - Darkestral: Fuck me sideways, this is really really good! "Rogue" is an intensely brooding, minimal storm of dense hypnotic percussion, anchored to the floor by a firm pulse of sub bass, with the occasional glitchy edit and the odd hint of a smooth pad further enlivening proceedings. "Sakura" is a deeper affair, with soaring melodies surging over a wonky undercarriage of expertly edited breaks...aaahfuckit Go and buy this you saps, these guys deserve your money! GO! NOW! 4.5/5 EXEC

V/A - Subtle Audio EP - Subtle Audio: Straight outta Limerick comes a quality double pack of fresh underground wax, as Subtle Audio drop the vinyl component of the Subtle Audio Volume 1 compilation. The five tunes spread across two plates on offer here include Cov.Ops head honcho ASC making his Subtle Audio debut with the majestic "Oceanography" (as good a slice of atmospheric D&B as you're likely to find this year) the intricate ethnic rollage of Soul Delay's "Ustad" and a MENTAL Macc remix of Sileni's already bonkers "Bouncing Octagonal Fragments". Jason OS chimes in with a gloriously measured skeletal composition and LXC remixes man-of-the-moment Martsmans "Some Minimal Business", managing to musically out-minimalise even the most minimal Minimal tunes. Man, music like this is a must-buy. 5/5 EXEC

RIGHT! HERE GOES!

2008-09-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

After many, many years of vacillating and shuffling my feet and procrastinating, I've finally decided to pull my executive digit out and join the (cringe) "blogosphere". (eeuw i feel dirty for having used that word).

Expect to find a frequently updated and perhaps mildly interesting torrent of news, mostly related to Drum and Bass music, life in Dublin City, as well as pictures of places I go to and people I see.

I'm going to be using this space as somewhere to archive all my writing for Slick DJ magazine (reviews and interviews etc) as well as somewhere to store all my writing for all the various heads who ask me to write stuff for them (and generally get disappointed when I fail to deliver stuff on time). I'll also be archiving all the playlists from my radio show on Dublin's Raidio na Life 106.4FM, as well as posting up the spammy blurbs I compose for it. Additionally, there will be plenty of meditations on Dublin life, and assorted narcissistic ramblings of the type so familiar to the self-absorbed info-saturated children of Web 2.0.

Hopefully this whole blogging endeavour (this blog, at any rate) will help me find enough of a voice and a familiarity with this brave new medium to FINALLY contribute something useful to WEAREIE; I hear they're quare dying for a bit of Executive Wisdom.