Mistabishi - Drop (Review: Tom)

When first decided to listen to this album I found myself in the same situation as both Dan and Matt in that I haven't had much of an experience with drum and bass, and more specifically 'liquid funk', previous to this album. Despite this I have listened to many hours of 'house' and 'funky house' mixes, forced upon me by my dad in my pre-car ownership days, giving me something to compare Mistabishi to.

The first worry I had about this album before I listened to it was a painful, ear bleeding endurance of hours of the same basic drum beats and strange sythesised sounds heard on cheesy science fiction shows such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. I am delighted to report that this was certainly not the case. The album had variation and cleverly constructed musical interludes and melodies, showing Mistabishi's ability as a musician and not just a DJ. Indeed the musical phrases heard in tracks such as 'No matter what', 'Greed' and 'View From Nowhere' removed all my anxiety about this album being 'unintelligent drum and bass' that I had been warned about. Furthermore the variation in drum beats and patterns changes throughout the album with Mistabishi using both accopela vocals, changes in tempo and dynamics to create relative climax or ani-climax's and the variations in drum beats and patterns such as his use of off beats in 'View From Nowhere' and a relaxed swung style beat in 'Lean'.

Mistabishi similarly uses clever techniques for creating his other tracks, most notably the much discussed track 'Printer Jam'. At first I thought this would serve simply as a gimic, making it diregardable as a listenable piece of music. I am happy to say that once again I was wrong. It not only utillises the most inventive use of sampling that I have heard but is also a piece of music in its own right. Indeed it is listenable as an example of drum and bass as well as providing an example of an inventive and clever gimic.

I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this album, so much so that I am looking for more examples of drum and bass. In my opinion if an album makes you want to experience more of a genre then it has performed its job superbly. It is therefore fair to say that Mistabishi has educated me, not only in his track 'Lean' as he explains that fire=smoke and smoke=choke and that grass is green, despite the extremely high educational value that this holds. Mistabishi educated me in the existence and versatility of drum and bass as a whole. It is for this and my sheer enjoyment of the album that validates my score:

4.5/5 OR 90% OR 9/10 (there, all avenues covered ;) )

Proudentall - What's Happening Here (Review:Tom)

This is my first review so be nice and don't judge me too much. :)

The first problem with this album is the badly and inappropriately named tracks, the first being the first track on the album 'Kill Myself', as it made me want to do anythig but that!!!! When I first listened to the start of the album I loved it and my scepticism of emo music immediately faded. I was immediately hit by the passion emmitted by Proudentall and the almost disturbing use of upbeat music to deliver such a sad and dark message. Furthermore it was the ability to convey a dark meassage without resorting to the oh-so popular method of drop tuning a guitar and screaming down the microphone that impressed me. Needless to say my first reaction was that this is a clever band who have developed their own style to send out their own message without falling into the easy habit of using stereotypical methods utilised by far too many bands.

Unfortunately the poor accuracy of titles is only solved through the track 'No Knowledge'. Despite my love of this album it has to be said that Proudentall clearly have 'no knowledge' on how to construct an album that is diverse or versatile. It is the repetitiveness of the album that for me is the major problem. Similarly when they do try to introdce something different from the exhausted guitar arpegio's and the constant switch between the 2/4 and 4/4 drum patterns, found in almost every track, I found myself falling asleep and feeling they are trying to be somehing they are not. The music previous to these tracks is angry and passionate and I feel the band do not have the emotional capacity to play such calm and soothing music in tracks such as 'Live Drawing Dead Winter' and 'Winter Dead Drawing Line'. It seems to me that this is simply an attempt to show versatility and a technical abilty that, in my opinion, they fail to acheive. To make matters worse in 'Live Drawing Dead Winter' the poor attempt at displaying some of Jazz influence through the poor trumpet playing and two chord strumming of the guitar was a complete failure. Not only this but the 7 minute endurance race made me frustrated as oppossed to impressed or relieved to hear something different. Oh and just a side point....the whispering is just annoying not scary!

Most of the tracks however where superb, making for easy listening and an enjoyable background-music sort of album. I first listened to this album in the car and wondered why the tracks were so long, glanced down at my ipod and realised i was listening to the end of track 4! It is this feature of the album that i cannot decide is positive or negative as the tracks blend beautifully, however are very similar. I think if listening to the album as a whole this can be forgiveable however should should a track come on whilst an ipod or computer is on shuffle, it could pose a problem.

Despite my apparent moan about this album believe it or not i loved it! I think it is simple and here simplicity is the key. I would definately be prepared to listen to more music from this genre with the only hope that there would be some variation that was within the bands ability.

A very good 4/5 for this fab album.