If anyone doesn't have Papa yet, go get it. It is great. The disjointed
sound of the EP's have been refined into some seriously polished drum n
bass tracks, that, instead of confusing you with 92 tempo shifts per
second, groove along quite nicely, and are still silly, but not
overwhelmingly cheesy. The second track is even beautiful, emotional music
that I rarely hear from Vibert, yet still has smatterings of his trademark
cheese. Sampling, rather than dominating this record, seems to add subtly
to its overall effect (except the life of the mind sample, which is
anything but subtle). The one thing that struck me about this whole work
was the drums, which are softer (perhaps brushes were used) than most d & b
stuff, and end up sounding very jazzy, and the bass, which is incredibly
thick and sounds alot like it was done on a mini moog for some reason. In
any case, this is not as avant garde or twisty or experimental as the EP's
were, but is still entirely original, and avoids many d & b cliches (except
for the amen break in the second track). The bass though is really
something, and sure beats the heck out of the same ol' pitched down 808
toms that dominate 99% of all other jungle. You folks have gotta try this
one. It flows well as an album too, not mixed togehter, but all the tracks
sort of run right into one another to great effect.
Also saw the new Cylob, which I would have picked up as well had I not
spent tons of cash on an Analogue Bubblebath 3 CD that looks like it will
never arrive. Be VERY careful when ordering things from strange people over
the internet.