This is one of the best trip-hop albums i own.This is trip-hop with "down" beats, really "ambiance", with a superb female voice.Go get it if you like trip-hop in general, it's really accessible.
The sound is like the voice of Emiliana Torrini with tricky as a producer/back up singer on some songs. It is the definition of bristol sound, standard formula trip hop.
1. Wiseguy 5:05
2. Grand 5:02
3. Witch Of Trouble 3:39
4. Crushed 3:06
5. Jabber 4:18
6. Hollywood 3:57
7. Burgeon 1:50
8. Black S 4:53
9. Mazda 0:58
10. Hide 4:06
11. Cutting Me Up 3:57
12. J. Hurt 4:18
13. Evo 4:41
Kieran Hebden's first Four Tet full-length in four years comes after a parade of collaboration albums, DJ dates, remixes, and one EP that sounded strikingly like John Carpenter soundtracking the original Halloween film. Appropriately, There Is Love in You is a reset album, one where Hebden pares his music down to the essentials. (Sorry, no dubstep workouts or pastoral ballads to be found here.) It's the most natural he's sounded on record in years, much more assured than Everything Ecstatic, which bore the brunt of Hebden's wish to snip the folktronica tag by floating an array of (somewhat) iconoclastic tracks. Here, the music consists of little more than soft tones, muted beats, and overlaid music-box melodies. Perhaps not a recipe for greatness, but in keeping with the axiom that a great artist can always shine no matter the materials or medium, There Is Love in You is an accomplished, beautiful record (despite the lack of shiny bits). Vocals, where they appear, are wordless and textural; the few samples are glitchy but warm and hypnotic. The nine-minute single "Love Cry" sounds like Carl Craig's Innerzone Orchestra making an epic children's record. Overall, There Is Love in You has the spartan precision of Phillip Glass but also, surprisingly, the warmth and vitality of classic Cluster as well. From his debut, Hebden has always made the more alien side of electronic music sound warm and inviting; this not only accomplishes that, but ranks with his best.
1. "Angel Echoes" 4:00
2. "Love Cry" 9:13
3. "Circling" 5:18
4. "Pablo's Heart" 0:12
5. "Sing" 6:49
6. "This Unfolds" 7:55
7. "Reversing" 2:40
8. "Plastic People" 6:34
9. "She Just Likes to Fight" 4:34
Kieran Hebden had every right to retreat from the folktronica tag stapled to his Four Tet recordings. Although he was the premier name in the sub-subgenre, and although his productions transcended even the cutest label that could be attached to them, the folktronica term was too clever by half; more importantly, no respectable artist in the indie underground can stand idly by while he's being pigeonholed. Nevertheless, the left turn Hebden has taken into jumpy Krautrock with 2005's Everything Ecstatic will make listeners yearn for the clever, nuanced productions he turned in on Pause and Rounds; fortunately, he hasn't completely forsaken his old ways. Early in the program, Hebden sounds more clearly derivative than he ever has; the spotlight track "Smile Around the Face" has one of Kanye West's chipmunk divas blandly merging into a sunny-day Avalanches production. "Sun Drums and Soil" begins with the menacing bell tones of an Autechre track and ends with the blatting horns of a free jazz workout, but the barrage of a percussion section never relents over six minutes. "Clouding," a criminally short interlude, is a turning point for Everything Ecstatic -- all of the album's best moments occur on the second half (and they are very good). "Turtle Turtle Up" and the shifting epic "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions" are nominally electro productions, but they're some of the oddest and most attentively produced electro tracks to ever appear on record. (On the latter, the slight influences of the Orb are assimilated into the whole, not pasted on top.) The final track, "You Were There With Me," transforms the sound of Balinese gongs into an isolated, nightmarish production with only a faint heartbeat for a rhythm track. Hopefully, using Everything Ecstatic as necessary distance, Hebden can either return to the sound of his early records or transform his new direction into styles worthy of his production talents.
1. "A Joy" – 3:07
2. "Smile Around the Face" – 4:30
3. "Fuji Check" – 0:23
4. "Sun Drums and Soil" – 6:14
5. "Clouding" – 1:43
6. "And Then Patterns" – 4:42
7. "High Fives" – 5:06
8. "Turtle Turtle Up" – 2:09
9. "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions" – 7:43
10. "You Were There With Me" – 5:52
For his solo projects, Fridge's Kieran Hebden is a lo-fi experimentalist who, had he been recording 15 years ago, would've been cranking out songs on a four-track recorder instead of a laptop. As demonstrated on his third record, Rounds, he's one of the few musicians capturing all the promise inherent in computer science -- being able to summon, manipulate, and mix any sound imaginable. The record offers something to nearly every audience that could approach it, with a bit of a groove for electronic fans, an obtuse sense of music-making for experimentalists, and a dreamy melodicism sure to endear it to indie-pop fans. The opener, "Hands," is especially breathtaking; it begins with a few seconds of drum samples, surgically inserted and ill-timed, but opens into a warm, melodic production with a simple frame-kit beat outlining Hebden's guitar-and-keyboard atmospherics. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" features a music-box melody playing against softly shaded backmasked guitar and a subdued, grating percussion line reminiscent of an iron lung. The nine-minute "Unspoken" alternates guitar and piano playing the same beatific melody, over another simple beat and tambourine claps. Though Rounds is experimental by nature, Kieran Hebden's gift for melody and emotional shading allows his records to be enjoyed by an audience wider than merely experimental listeners.
1. "Hands" – 5:40
2. "She Moves She" – 4:38
3. "First Thing" – 1:12
4. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" – 5:06
5. "Spirit Fingers" – 3:21
6. "Unspoken" – 9:29
7. "Chia" – 0:31
8. "As Serious as Your Life" – 4:36
9. "And They All Look Broken Hearted" – 5:06
10. "Slow Jam" – 5:16
On his second full-length as Four Tet, producer/mixologist/computer kid Kieran Hebden further f*cks with the notion that turntablism and electronica are essentially "nothing more than" computer music. While it's true that all the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies here are collaged samples combined with turntable wizardry, uninformed listeners would be hard-pressed to find anything but a few drum loops that sound as if they were composed and recorded by a band. For starters, on his opener, "Glue of the World," acoustic guitars, zithers, harps, and string basses wander around a minor-key riff that is augmented by a slip 'n' slide hip-hop rhythm with a sharp, in-your-face, drum-'n'-no-bass interlude. The track is a weave; it blends new age, acoustic jazz, and flamenco music in a golden braid that is heavenly. On "Twenty Three," steel drums, bells, and African and Balinese rhythm instruments open the way for an electric piano and acoustic guitar riff aided by a set of congas and bongos to come charging in DJ Shadow style. Just as the West African folk music theme settles, Hebden kicks it with hip-hop and a front line of trumpets, playing a long, slow, languid melody line, turning it into who knows what, but it's cool. It's also beautiful that there are small interludes of found sounds, like typewriter keys re-sequenced against an electric piano to create nothing but an ambient rhythm track that sounds as much like somebody shuffling things around on a desk as anything else -- until you pay attention. On tracks like "Untangle," where the percussion sounds a little less organic, Hebden demonstrates with flashes and cross-fades how rhythms from all over the world can be unified by the turntablist's skill -- or perhaps by musicians themselves willing to play together, which would be ideal. When the guitars and the bajo sexto kick in with the drums and the loops, it's the freakin' United Nations on stun, kickin' up a grand-style peace whoop. Four Tet's Pause offers more proof that DJ culture still has plenty to offer, and that Keiran Hebden is just getting started in his experimentation with transcultural electronica. Organic as dirt, and full of an acid-head's sense of space, this one's a winner from start to finish.
1. "Glue of the World" 5:02
2. "Twenty Three" 3:24
3. "Harmony One" 1:41
4. "Parks" 6:03
5. "Leila Came Round and We Watched a Video" 1:39
6. "Untangle" 4:36
7. "Everything Is Alright" 2:31
8. "No More Mosquitoes" 3:39
9. "Tangle" 3:44
10. "You Could Ruin My Day" 7:03
11. "Hilarious Movie of the 90's" 3:29
Some people might think it's easy to explain Fourtet: "It's electronica." It might be easiest to wince at these people and concede, "Yes, well sort of." Fourtet, the one-man DJ project of Fridge's Kieran Hebden, doesn't fit so easily into any one category. True, there are beats, samples, and other aspects of turntablism to his music, but there are also live instruments and very real sounding drum tracks -- "organic electronic" might be one way to describe it. Dialogue is Fourtet's first proper album (a slew of remixes and 12-inches have come before and after). Sometimes the record is jazzy: Heavy acoustic bass and scattered drums, but alternately, tabla and sitar, are the key focus of the final track. It seems that Hebden is quite happy in any musical setting he creates. None of the album sounds contrived, and there's an underlying earnestness that provides real credibility. Some of the record sounds, at times, like the more sampled passages of Fridge, but not as austere. If you're feeling fed up with stale, predictable electronica, or feeling ready to brave the shores of the electro-isle, this is an excellent album.
1. "The Space of Two Weeks" – 5:50
2. "Chiron" – 5:23
3. "Alambradas" – 1:55
4. "3.3 Degrees from the Pole" – 6:00
5. "Misnomer" – 3:20
6. "Liquefaction" – 4:58
7. "She Scanned" – 3:12
8. "Calamine" – 7:38
9. "The Butterfly Effect" – 6:21
10. "Aying" – 4:56
11. "Fume" – 9:53
12. "Charm" – 5:04
Previewed by "Twerk" -- their booty-disco, "Maniac"-quoting team-up with Yo Majesty -- plus the uplifting perfection of the five-star track "Raindrops" -- sung by member Felix Buxton with Auto-Tune on the assist -- Scars is an obvious return-to-form effort for Basement Jaxx, reigning in the big conceptual ambition displayed on Crazy Itch Radio for better or worse. Getting back to everyday business sounds like sweet relief on tracks like the good-timing "Twerk," and while this is the lunk-headed party theme you'd expect from such a pairing, two of the other marquee-worthy collaborations far exceed expectations. First up is the hot-stepping, Santigold cut "Saga," which suggests that a shared love of the Clash and the Specials was discussed ahead of time. More stunning is the Yoko Ono team-up "Day of the Sunflowers (We March On)" which takes a "Walking on Thin Ice" strategy, supporting Yoko Ono's stark poetry reading with a razor sharp, no wave dance track. The wistful "My Turn" with Lightspeed Champion is like that grand, danceable dreamer that shows up towards the end of the best Pet Shop Boys albums, leaving only the Amp Fiddler effort, "A Possibility," up for debate, since adding new, rather average lyrics to Santo & Johnny's classic instrumental "Sleepwalk" seems an unispired move from this innovative crew. Still, it hardly breaks the album, and there's nothing here you could write off as true filler, but that perfect flow that made their masterpieces so thrilling is missing, plus the increased number of doubtful or regretful numbers referenced by the album's title seems to come from a totally different song cycle than the busy, rump-shaking stunners. Even if this is a bumpier ride than expected, Scars is a worthwhile throwback to the freak attitude that kicked off their career over a decade earlier. Anyone excited by the idea will find plenty to love.
1. "Scars" (feat. Kelis, Meleka & Chipmunk) 4:15
2. "Raindrops" 4:10
3. "She's No Good" (feat. Eli "Paperboy" Reed) 3:26
4. "Saga" (feat. Santigold) 2:42
5. "Feelings Gone" (feat. Sam Sparro) 3:42
6. "My Turn" (feat. Lightspeed Champion) 4:52
7. "A Possibility" (feat. Amp Fiddler) 2:45
8. "Twerk" (feat. Yo! Majesty) 3:30
9. "Day of the Sunflowers (We March On)" (feat. Yoko Ono) 5:59
10. "What's a Girl Gotta Do" (feat. Paloma Faith) 4:04
11. "Stay Close" (feat. Lisa Kekaula) 3:01
12. "Distractionz" (feat. Jose Hendrix) 5:03
13. "Gimme Somethin' True" (feat. Jose James) 5:29
Back in 2007/2008 we were told by certain music publications that Hadouken were a band worth caring about. Fast forward a few years to 2010 and the same publications are now telling us that the Leeds formed Watford based band aren't worth bothering with at all. Hmm, that's quite a U turn isn't it? Could this be due to the fact that they no longer stand behind the nu-rave scene with which they were perhaps unfairly mixed in with? Perhaps. But it seems that sometimes bands that are part of scenes are allowed to get away with murder, just as long as they bolster a movement that keeps young and impressionable music fans buying into it. Their last effort, Music For An Accelerated Culture didn't exactly wipe the bored in terms of reviews, but it was given the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that it was 'tongue in cheek' Well after hearingFor the Masses, it's quite obvious that it really wasn't as the same sentiment remains.
Recorded in Holland, with Dutch electronic producers Noisia, this is a record that's as violent and spiky as its predecessor. If anything it's even more rough around the edges, with its Prodigy moulded beats and bleeps making an appearance on every track. Its attempts to be intimidating unfortunately fall short by some length, most notably in the cases of Mic Check and M.A.D. This is despite singer James Smith hiding his middle class accent with more success than he did last time around.
There are times when the sickly beats/aggressive lyrics formula works though, and that's in the case of Turn The Lights Out. With its lyrical bile of 'This is your last chance boy/get ready for the rough and tumble if you wanna be starting something' spill out over an equally heavy beat, its melodic chorus will probably give it a chance of some radio play. Similarly Bombshock with its vibrating, electrifying presence makes itself hard to ignore as it grates into your consciousness uninvited.
Other than those brief shots of inventiveness, the rest of the album struggles to deliver on its obvious intent. Its attempts to shock and intimidate fail on both counts as its violent lyrics and offensive sounds coming across as cheap gimmicks.For the Masses does however contain two tracks with mainstream capabilities. And it's in the form of Bombshock and Turn The Lights Out that suggest Hadouken may have hope for the future.
1. "Rebirth" 4:30
2. "Turn the Lights Out" 3:53
3. "M.A.D" 3:26
4. "Evil" 3:56
5. "House is Falling" 4:10
6. "Mic Check" 3:26
7. "Ugly" 4:05
8. "Bombshock" 3:54
9. "Play the Night" 4:13
10. "Lost" 4:16
Imagine a cross between the Prodigy and 2 Unlimited (yes, it is possible), and Hadouken! are the band that achieved that unlikely pairing on their debut full-length album, Music for an Accelerated Culture. Track three was titled "Game Over" and computer gaming featured high on Hadouken!'s list of influences, even down to their name, which reportedly came from a specific fighting attack move in the Street Fighter game. Using computer-generated bleeps and synthesized sounds to create a kind of wall of sound behind James Smith's vocals, tracks such as "That Boy That Girl" began to surface on the Internet as early as February 2007, and some of the tracks had also appeared on the EP Not Here to Please You, which was issued only as a downloadable set of tracks or on the relatively new format of a USB memory stick. The band waited until May 2008 to release its first proper album, which featured a programmed drumbeat and bassline throughout, making most of lyrical content almost irrelevant. One doubts Hadouken! knew too much about the Dutch techno band from the early '90s named 2 Unlimited, but the synth riffs bear a remarkable similarity. Near the end of the album was the track "Liquid Lives," a song that became a reasonably sized hit (well, number 36 for one week) in the early summer of 2007. Perhaps the album was a classic example of a band waiting too long to release it officially, and fans' excitement had already faded.
1. "Get Smashed Gate Crash" - 3:21
2. "That Boy That Girl" - 3:32
3. "Game Over" - 3:35
4. "Declaration of War" - 3:11
5. "Mr Misfortune" - 3:17
6. "Crank It Up" - 3:00
7. "What She Did" - 3:18
8. "Driving Nowhere" - 3:48
9. "Liquid Lives" 2:51
10. "Spend Your Life" - 3:13
11. "Wait for You" - 4:00
Just when it seemed 2009’s trash-brat electro scene (3OH!3, LMFAO, Shwayze) was about crumble under its own weight, rapper/singer/songwriter Ke$ha became the genre’s biggest star, graduating from being Flo Rida’s backup singer (she provided the hook on the rapper’s massive single “Right Round”) to superstar when her debut single, “TiK ToK,” set a digital sales record with over 600,000 downloads in a week. Her climb to the top includes bizarre factoids like she once lived in the house where the Eagles recorded Hotel California, plus she once vomited in Paris Hilton’s closet. Working on Hilton's album was the reason she was at the house, so it’s hard not to appreciate how Animal makes Ke$ha sound nothing like an industry vet who used to write for the Veronicas. Here, she’s a gum-snapping, alcohol-abusing Facebook jockey straight out of the suburbs who spits sophomoric but fun putdowns, come-ons, and sig files all over electro beats. Opening with “Maybe I need some rehab/Or maybe just need some sleep,” Animal is upfront about its unwillingness to face the real world, and prefers a garbage chic reality with a liberal shot of the ‘80s. “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” could have fallen off the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, while the word “gross” makes a serious comeback throughout the album. The music is heavy on gimmicks — Auto-Tune, vocoders, and silly samples are all here in abundance — while able folks like Dr. Luke plus Mim and Liv Nervo are in charge of the colorful electro-pop productions. As far as subversion goes, “Boots and Boys” presents the lusty, “Suicide Blond”-type track from a rare female point of view, but a couple of unexpected and completely unsatisfying ballads are the type of fluff anyone with an edge would avoid. Snooty taste makers and parents should avoid Animal at all costs, but with so many fun, “TiK ToK”-type tracks, the album has plenty for both brats and the bratty at heart.
1. Your Love Is My Drug (3:07)
2. Tik Tok (3:19)
3. Take It Off (3:35)
4. Kiss N Tell (3:27)
5. Stephen (3:32)
6. Blah Blah ft. 30H!3 (2:52)
7. Hungover (3:52)
8. Party At A Rich Dude's House (2:55)
9. Backstabber (3:06)
10. Blind (3:17)
11. Dinosaur (2:55)
12. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (3:29)
13. Boots & Boys (2:56)
14. Animal (3:57)
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