Archive
Londinium

THE REVIEW

If there is a group snubbed and underestimated by music critics, I truly believe it is the Londoners Archive. Here we are with their debut, dated 1996.
At the time, very few, really very few, noticed it.
It was the year of the Eels' Beautiful Freak, Pearl Jam's No Code, Nick Cave's Murder Ballads, and Beck's Odelay, just to mention some of the gems of '96. But there was no trace of Archive. And even in the years to come, despite releasing three more very respectable works (a bit less for Noise) over the long haul, we neither read nor saw almost anything.
So?
So I'll tell you. This is an immense album.
Deconstructed trip-hop. Rap inserts and sampled rhythms from the first to the last track, not a weak moment. Arguing that the rap parts might seem to slightly weigh down the work, leaves aside the importance of having given a break to a genre that was dozing off on the beat-melody binary.
I can assure you, however, that from the school of the great Grandmaster Flash, only a small echo is heard. Where the lyrics were dominant, here the Bristol doctrine clearly brands an album of unmistakable trip-hop origin (if you like, you could call it trip-hip-hop).
Nevertheless, there are more refined moments where the beat gently settles to soften the inevitable female vocals, Headspace above all.
Nocturnal music on technological beats and seductive voices taking the lead. Melody at the service of technology and vice versa.
Before them, there were Massive Attack and Portishead, after them came many imitators to plunder the genre, emptying it of meaning and making it good only for a beach barbecue. Chill-out for summer parties.
Among the most credible witnesses, I feel like giving a nod to Morcheeba, Mandalay, and Zero 7.
Buy this album, listen to it a thousand times then break it and go buy it again, listen to it another thousand times then break it and go buy it again, listen to it another thousand times...