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Rating:
After the phenomenal "New Forms," it was hard to imagine that Roni Size could repeat the feat by creating an album of equal and commendable quality. However, the DJ and producer from Bristol surprises everyone by releasing "Ultra-Obscene" (Talkin' Loud, 1999) two years after his multi-award-winning debut. This album is the result of collaboration with vocalist Leonie Laws and fellow DJ Die, with whom he forms the Breakbeat Era collective.
With its bizarre and ultra-minimal artwork, the project presents, in its fifteen tracks, analogies and, most importantly, differences with the previous "New Forms." The desire to make fans and clubbers from around the world move their heads and hips remains, but at the same time, the "black" soul of the Drum'n'Bass genre is further explored through the excellent and almost omnipresent voice of Leonie Laws and the raw and engaging rhythms created by the two DJs at work, in many cases true wedding invitations for the gifted breaker on duty. The low and distorted tones of the opening "Past Life" (in fact, a characteristic of the entire work) introduce us worthily into the album. "Rancid," with its heavy and fragmented rhythms, first sheds light on Miss Laws' vocals. The magnificent title track is a veritable anthem to dance, as well as a sonic kaleidoscope of incredible complexity, with acidic and "pitched" drum inserts, funk-flavored wawa guitars, and more. One could linger and meticulously describe each track, from the deep and delicate (in quotes) "Bullitproof" to the hypnotic "Time 4 Breaks", passing through the instrumental "Late Morning", with its beautiful guitar sample, "Animal Machine", dominated by slow and dilated tempos that precede shortly the triumph of electronic effects in the chorus, then reaching the echoes and reverbs of the splendid "Control Freak" and the varied sonic universe of the concluding and pounding "Life Is My Friend", which ends 74 minutes of music close to perfection.
Of course, in some (very few) cases, the overall level slightly decreases, but in any case, "Ultra-Obscene", while positioned a half-step below the epic "New Forms," remains an essential work for fully understanding the D'n'B universe of the past decade, an intense album to dance to and, why not, to love. Rating: 4.5
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 Rancid (05:07)
On the left, to the right
Pressure gridlock eye on the prize
On my knees finally
The irony is you saying please
If you sleep too long the fires go out
You dare to dream and we have no doubt
One ahead one behind
It's physical no cold fish apply
Junk in your words don't show in your face I wait for your face to break
Vicious and clean edge like a razor hunting the lazerblade
Its free to the sweet one the short and the brief one silence is dangerous
Show me illusion in all the confusion peculiar database
Open up what am I ?
It's all in the book babe line after line
Easily voice on the line soothe it to sooth you
Ice down my spine
03 Ultra-Obscene (05:03)
I see you can you see I
Paper thin made of neon
Weekend come I gotta see you
Take your time and consider
Don't be down I'll make you better
Got the back to the letter
meet me down by the river
Lay me down and pull the trigger
Ultra obscene - ah -
You and me - ah -
Skin on skin - ah -
Uh, uh, uh
Ultra obscene
04 Bullitproof (04:32)
Electrify me you my half baked youth I memorise your face so I won't forget you Dancing demons in the firelight yes it's true Remind me of the night I first met you Criticise me for my mis-spent youth No thrill no lie more crazy than the truth You give me precious things I throw them all away And now you free my breath your scared what I might say Speak no lie, I tell the truth Save my breath you break the rules Time will tell yeah who is who Side by side we're bullitproof
08 Anti-Everything (05:26)
My life home life,
Drought in the night life,
Half light twilight,
My life is no life.
Change come on and do it,
Shame your'e only fooling,
I don't find you,
In the least amusing.
Blood throb deadline,
Can't think can't whine,
Burn ya baby all night,
Don't forget to do it.
Superskunk affected
Mind disease believe
Taste it I can feel it
Anti everything
Whack up the smile to factor ten
It's a dodgy situation
Flagship indicator
Maybe I'll be ready
I'm just an honest nonsense breaker
I ain't worked it out yet
Steal the thorn and bin the nose
I was raised a double agent
Hardwire isolator
See through invitation.
09 Animal Machine (03:03)
Down and round is on my mind
Sleep forever I got time
Feel my feelings on her wear
You look nervous I don't care
All you got I rich inside
Free to do what's in my mind
Stlye to suit you make it clear
4am are you still here
Don't believe me when I say
Don't be scared don't run away
I coil around you no escape
Run on home it's getting late
With the tightly break on things
Bite the flesh that feeds you please
With my style I go between
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine
Don't believe me when I say
Don't be scared don't run away
I coil around you no escape
Run on home it's getting late
All you got I rich inside
Free to do what's in my mind
Stlye to suit you make it clear
4am are you still here
You ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine
No point in lying
My mind is playing
Everytime I close my eyes I see you
No way to hide it, no way to say it
It's in the smallest things that you do
I can't believe my mind is playing
My mind is playing these trips like this
Can feel my eyes is straying
I need a heat I feel to be I'm with you
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine
12 Control Freak (05:44)
Sleaze on the slide
Control freak freaking out on the dance floor
Deep inside
Sleaze on the slide
Control freak freaking out on the dance floor
Deep inside skin decide
I feel alive no love indecision
In the summer time
Sleaze on the slide
Control freak freaking out on the dance floor
Deep inside time to time
I symapthise no rhyme need to reason in the summer time
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