jackhammer

A band I have heard of and the description piqued my interest but I was underwhelmed by the vids. Sounds a little disjointed to me and probably a little too light for what I was looking for.

You might want to check out:

Thievery Corporation
Transglobal Underground
Nitin Sawnhey
Karminski Experience
Orange Blossom

If you like the fusion of Electronic and World beats.

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Dieselboy

That's a shame. Looking at my review now, I'm a little disappointed with it. Youtube failed horribly as far as what songs I wanted to show. All I have there is two tunes that are sorta same-y sounding when my goal was to show of some of their diversity. Ugh, oh well.


I've heard Thievery Corporation of course, but not the others. Just judging by the names, Orange Blossom strikes me as a pretty chill sounding. I'll check them out, thx.

Dieselboy

(From this point forward I'll be trying to make my reviews a bit more compact. Hopefully they'll be more pleasing to read.
I'll also be labeling reviews as either 'New Release' or 'Old Favorite'. I just think it will be helpful to differentiate between the two. Old favorites, you can pretty much assume I would recommend, while new releases will just be albums I've been looking forward to, but may be rated pretty harshly. Ok then.)

King Midas Sound - Waiting For You (2009)

I first heard this outfit on a dub-step compilation from a label called Hyperdub, which also boasts Burial among its ranks. Indeed, the song they had featured on the comp, Meltdown, sounded quite similar to Burial in my mind. The slow bass-lines, the dark and almost depressing atmosphere, even the haunting vocals. Not identical, but near enough to get me excited for their full release.

On first listen to the full album however, I was very underwhelmed. Most of the songs are very minimal, more so than Burial I'd say. It's just bassline, drums, and vocals on some of the these tracks. It's unfortunate, but I'd have to say the largest variance between the two artists would be the vocals. Where Burial samples soulful sounding R&B'ish vocals that are packed with emotion and heartache, KMS only has the same singer for the majority. He sounds very relaxed and pleasant, but at the same time, sings with the exact same "half-whisper half-singing" tone in every song. It almost sounds like he is trying to lullaby the listener to sleep. Not surprisingly, the best way I could think of to describe this to a new listener would be; the music you might hear in the middle of a dream, as everything around you moves in slow motion and blurs (see the cover). Pleasant and soft enough that it easily gets lost in the background, and never jarring enough to wake you up.

A few of the tracks stand out off the bat, such as the previously mentioned Meltdown. Not to mention the fourth track, Earth a Kill Ya is spoken word poetry, and is also a nice break from the norm on this album. Apart from those two and a couple others though, most of the songs tend to blend together, and this disc might take many spins before the listener will be able to differentiate on their own. After ten or more complete listens at this point, it's grown on my slowly, but is still one of the biggest disappointments I've had in recent months. Looking back now, wanting this to be "the next Burial" and hoping for anything comparative to Untrue was pretty unfair. I think I would have enjoyed this alot more without those preconceived notions going in.

Despite what might look like a negative review...this isn't terrible. Not amazing either, but I'd say it's listenable from time to time. If slow and/or relaxing dubstep is your thing, or you just want something really chill to put in the background while chatting with friends, you might wanna check this out. Personally, just not what I'd hoped for.

Dieselboy

I've only heard this very recently, but am completely obsessed with this song atm. The group is called called Broken Bells, and they just released this, their first single, late last month. A collaboration between super-producer Danger Mouse and former vocalist/guitarist of the Shins, James Mercer. To me this song sounds like the sum of its parts, with catchy indie rock and a great chorus mixed well with a lot of production tricks and effects. The verse might have something to do with my obsession as well, as the way he sings it sounds very familiar, just something I can't quite put my finger on.
The full length album will be released on March 10th.

TheBig3

this songs blowing up on counterculture radio and I have to say I'm excited that people outside the community are using James Mercer in some capacities that give him some range.

While this isn't earth shattering, it makes tremendous use of the tools at hand. Danger Mouse strikes gold again.

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Engine

I think 67/100 is harsh. You already addressed it so you clearly understand that rating an album by comparing it to another one that you hoped it would sound like is not the best system. In my opinion it's the worst possible system. You may not like this as much as Untrue but there's no good reason to compare them.
Judged on its own merits I think the album is worth a lot more than 67/100.
Anyway, it's interesting that you like 'Earth A Kill Ya'. Instead of the reedy-voiced poet who does vocals on most of Waiting For You - these vocals are by Roger Robinson who did a bunch of the vocals on London Zoo by The Bug - which is another project (much heavier dubstep - I guess) by Kevin Martin who is also King Midas Sound.


Anyway, I love the KMS album - but the bigger point is that, if you want some livelier dubstep you need to check out The Bug if you haven't already - just don't compare it to Burial

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I was only passing through.

abdullah424

Broken Bells is honestly exactly what I expected it to be, and that's a good thing. I'll definitely be playing that album for a while.

Dieselboy

As for the 67, I do tend to grade a little more harshly than most, I feel like, when using number/star grades. To me, 67 is above average, and not bad at all. I mean if you convert that to stars...that's nearly 7/10, ya know? I didn't grade La Roux (my favorite of the year) on here, but if I had then it would have gotten an 85/100 I think...just to give you some perspective I guess.

Looking back, I think you're probably right about the Burial thing. Even if I went in with those hopes, I shouldn't have used the comparison so many times in my review. I don't think it effected my final rating as much as a reader might think, as I gave it many more listens after the initial spin (which is the only time I expected similarities). I'll try not to do that in the future though.


-_-

I will go look for this. Your taste seems pretty great from what I've seen you post, so I imagine this will be cool, thx.

Dieselboy

So I'm listening to Mary Ann Hobbes experimental show last night. As the intro comes on, and she starts introducing this weeks features, including how tonight's show would feature the youngest producer to ever be played in the program's history. My ears perked up a bit of course. How old could this producer be? sixteen?...maybe fifteen? Surely you couldn't get much younger than that and be putting stuff out that deserves air time on RADIO 1 right?

Towards the middle of the show Mary Ann finally got around to this subject again and then stated,

"From Bristol...his name is Lucas, but he is better known as Majik. Only TEN years old..."

I did one of those half-laugh, half-snorts. Ten years old? I'm sure it's cute, but how good could this actually be? The music started playing, and I admit to being a bit shocked as I listened. Check out some of this for yourself:

Magik - Interceptor

Not bad. When you consider that he's only been alive for a decade though, it's incredible. I mean it's not perfect. The intro is a bit short and weird, but other than that, no major complaints. Apparently his dad is a producer of some sort, and he's just spent his last 2 years of free time in the studio every day. He's been learning and making his own tracks during that time. Very cool kid! From what was said after the song ended, they're going to be pumping his stuff pretty good on future shows as well.

The song that was played on the radio though, was actually called Future Predator. You can hear it as it appeared on the show, with an intro from Hobbes and then his own spoken intro as well, on his myspace. His page also has quite a few other impressive songs he's done, not to mention some pictures of a 10 year old striking hard pose's.

jackhammer

I was very disappointed with The Bug album myself, lacked cohesion for me and didn't quite know what sort of sound it was gunning for.

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