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quoted 2 lines The NME did an excellent review of this album (on Skint label).

>The NME did an excellent review of this album (on Skint label). >Has someone got it? How's it?

I think it's brilliant. Not nearly as hip-hop as i'd expected from reading reviews. The beats are hip-hop, but the atmospherics have as much to do with autechre as anything else. Really, really dark. Nice'n'slow. Sort of hilarious, at first, encountering oldskool vocal samples like "cars, girls, money too" dropped over these dark nasty atmospherics. One thing about the album--it's really lo-fi. On the one hand, I like that quality--gives it a certain roughness. Definitely not overpolished. On the other hand, i hope a lot of people buy this record, so that next time he can afford a recording without tape hiss. But that's just nitpicking, really. On the whole I find it a stellar record--and really stunningly beautiful in parts. The record's gotten a lot of hype--especially an absurd quote in the Skint ad about it being akin to a first experience of aphex or public enemy. igore the hype and just buy the damn record. If you like Req's "One," you'll probably also dig the "Musical Dilemmas" comp on Ultimate Dilemma. Features two req tracks easily as good as anything on the album ("miracles" and "meditations"), a sublime track by Tek 9, and decent-to-excellent tracks by Runaways, Danny Breaks (which seems to be a req remix), Raymatics, Blueshift, Peshay, Melaaz, & Misterjon. Req & Tek 9 stand out in the sparse department; raymatics are a lot jazzier, w/ horns & funk; melaaz is pure trip-hop, frog style; blueshift drop synthy drum&bass that's nice & crisp, if not frighteningly original. All in all, i'd say, the album features strong beats & some worthwhile atmospherics. I'm not sure that the subtitle, "Innovation in experimental beats," is completely appropriate, but then again i'm just generally a little sick of the "experimental" appendage. Now a question: can anyone tell me about other Tek 9 material? or other stuff on Skint? phil p h i l i p h u g h s h e r b u r n e - - - - - - b r o w n u n i v e r s i t y - - - - - - - - - 4 0 1 . 4 5 3 . 4 1 1 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - "everywhere, organized music is traversed by a line of abolition--just as a language of sense is traversed by a line of escape--in order to liberate a living and expressive material that speaks for itself and has no need of being put into a form." --deleuze & guattari