Mistabishi - Drop (Review: MattJ)

Well I've not heard much drum and bass in my time but I do like nearly all of what I've heard from the genre - as well as the closely related Jungle and Dub Step genres. I must say that Mistabishi are different from other drum and bass songs I hear coming from my mates' cars - and this must be what 'Liquid Funk' is. My opening thoughts: 'Well this is quite uplifting' as Roshan said it would be. Another thing that Roshan said is that this is drum and bass that you can just sit and listen to rather than just on occasions like clubs and driving - this is still being debated as much as when I will write a paragraph that doesn't include a hyphen.

So what do I look for in a Drum and Bass album? Well the answers are: Songs that don't sound the same, good production throughout, if there are vocals then for them to fit in nicely with the music, and above all originality. This most of all because so many drum and bass songs I have heard in the past sound vastly similar. So let's tackle originality first. This album is not like any other Drum and Bass I've heard before, as I already stated it is purposefully uplifting and it does this quite well. The Printer Jam song is incredibly clever and I think it's amazing how they managed to get such an exciting sound out of a boring office situation - it is also quite funny. Therefore Drop does well in the originality department. Obviously from this point we can see that not all of songs on the album sound the same.

The vocals on some drum and bass songs I've heard before ruin it for me, either poor vocals or a bad sample (Dub Step is often guilty of this). But I think that Mistabishi manage to have their vocals sound like they suit the music well, the only time I didn't like it was on the song View from Nowhere where they have a male vocalist. Maybe it's just that I don't like male singers on this type of music... I'm not sure. I really like the sample at the beginning of White Collar Grime - a song that's one of the album's highpoints.

However I did not like every aspect of the album. I wasn't a big fan of View from Nowhere at all, it just sounded a little boring to me - it didn't make me bounce around in my chair is what I really mean. I also found myself pretty bored with Wipe Your Tears and was surprised to see that it wasn't six minutes long. I don't think that the sound of window wipers works as well as a printer jamming.

But overall this is a very good album and one of the best Drum and Bass albums I've heard. Although I still think Hold Your Colour is a better album even if it is the Tracy Beaker of DnB. If they are the Tracy Beaker than Mistabishi are Star Trek. A solid release with very nice production and original use of office equipment warrants a 4/5 I feel.

I'm not using percentages ... ever.