ALBUM REVIEWS
styles as he explores his new love for all
things techno-inspired.
‘Viscosity’ is an impressive opener, its epic
chords freefalling over tumbling breakbeats
and the acid-fl ecked ‘Tone Program’ works
well, before we fall into the tripped-out
minimalism of ‘Sine Waves’.
With all the tracks mixed together, play loud
for a trip into some sonic headfuckery. Lucy
Peters
Mint track: ‘Sine Waves’
*****
John Askew
Z List Uber Star
Discover Records
Solid showing
For a nation that
propelled trance
onto dance
music’s big screen
via the fanaticism
of Gatecrasher
circa ‘99, it seems
odd that we have produced few genuine
trance superstars except Above & Beyond and
Paul Oakenfold.
But whilst Gallery resident John Askew might
never swell the same stadiums as Van Buuren,
Tiësto, et al, it speaks volumes that his tracks
are ever present in their sets and this smooth
journey through dreamy vocal trance,
uptempo tech numbers, growling 303 affairs
and bona fi de serotonin rockets is as solid as
straight-up trance LPs come. Allan McGrath
Mint track: ‘Fade To Black’
*****
Madlib The Beat
Konducta
WLIB AM: King Of The Wigfl ip
BBE
Smokin’
BBE call time on replicate a 10-year-old sound. ‘Pretty Toastie Sly and Robbie/Amp Deadmau5
their Beat Girl’ and ‘Sea of Tranquility’ are ambient Fiddler Random Album Title
Generation series affairs with a twist of melancholic dubby fx, Inspiration Information
Ministry of Sound
disappearing in a while ‘Fun’ is a huge hit in waiting.
Strut
All things
cloud of Richard Brophy
Mutual to all men
suspicious- Mint track: ‘Fun’
appreciation
smelling smoke. With hip-hop’s very own
society
Canadian
spirit of jazz Madlib at the helm, the fi nal
*****
prodigy Joel
installment is as surreal and soupy as you’d Squarepusher Strut’s new album
Zimmerman
expect, with woozy instrumental beats, Just A Souvenir series, which puts
has emerged
throwaway scraps of soundtracks, soul tunes
Warp
two sets of fi gures
as if from
like ‘Yo Yo Affair’ that sound like they’re being
Wibbly wobbly
who are diehard
nowhere to
sung through a bong and hip-hop tracks as fans of each
annex dance music, with a style that
potent as their producer’s preferred choice of He’s a bass- other’s music in the studio together for a
seems to combine all the big room
herb. Paul Clarke slapping fi ve-day jam session, could be as much of a
ingredients into his own peculiarly
Mint track: ‘What It Do’ gargantuan. His recipe for self-indulgent back-slapping as it is
potent progressive house/trance blend.
*****
production for inspirational sounds.
This new album collects his biggest
explores the Thankfully, this collaboration between
singles to date and a smattering of brand
Mirror Music underbelly of legendary Jamaican rhythm section Sly and
new numbers. And it’s a remarkably
The Strange Things I’ll Remember drum & bass, jazz Robbie and Detroit neo-soul maestro Amp
cohesive listen, demonstrating the
Darkroom Dubs
fusion, electro and funk yet Tom Jenkinson’s Fiddler is as enjoyable for the listener as it
development of Zimmerman’s distinctive
Mirror, mirror
albums still sound more like a nerd in his was for those involved.
sound.
lonely element than the romp between the Amp’s inimitably smooth voice is spread over New tracks like opener ‘Sometimes
Inspired by the sheets with the sexiest bass on the planet. Sly and Robbie’s equally slick skanking Things Get, Whatever’ combine dark
deep, disco-tinged ‘The Coathanger’ is up there with Billy grooves, and the cover of George Clinton’s atmospherics with spine-shivering,
sound of the Cobham and the jazz fusion greats. ‘Paint The White House Black’ is almost as melodic breakdowns. There’s plenty of
late-‘90s, Mirror ‘Quatrature’ is all fast fi ngers in strange effective an argument for Barack Obama to be life in this mau5 yet. Ben Murphy
Music’s debut times. But with the loose-limbed sexuality President as the Democratic nominee has Mint track: ‘Brazil’
album is full of stripped bare, only numbers remain. himself.
funk guitar riffs (‘Gravity Groove’) and Martin James Paul Clarke
*****
infectious fi ltered grooves (‘Medicine’). Mint track: Delta-V Mint track: ‘U’
Thankfully though, ‘Things…’ doesn’t merely
* *****
www.djmag.com 213
DJ467.albums. indd.indd 213 2/10/08 14:21:24
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