Daniel Givens
Age

Over 70 minutes of a sound made from a thousand ingredients from electronic to soul, with some excursions into funk and free jazz, but all in a dub trip hop sauce.
You didn't understand anything? Well, neither did I after several years of having this album..

Usually, the composition of a review is made from the sender to the recipient, meaning that it aims to inform as many people as possible about the structure of a given album or our opinions regarding it, whether to recommend the purchase or not, or to compare ideas with those who already know the album or group in question. In this case, I propose a Copernican revolution and ask everyone: help the reviewer understand this album!
The dawn of criticism and chronicles is all for Daniel Givens, album of the year 2000 for many magazines, best experimentation award in dub for many magazines, free form of quality and a fascinating journey into the metropolitan world according to others... how can I not buy it? Given the difficult availability of the product, I proceed directly to a blind purchase and...

The connection with the hometown Chicago can be felt in the proximity to the Tortoise scene, just know that in some tracks of the album a member of theirs, Jeff Parker, plays the guitar, but Tortoise are certainly not close to these sounds... difficult to describe a similar sound for its heterogeneity, starting from the initial drum machine of "Allies" which seems to stumble at any moment only to disappear without leaving a particular sensation.
There are moments on the album when I have the distinct feeling of being in front of a timeless masterpiece, a symbol of the sound of our days where inspiration reigns supreme, but at other moments I am bewildered by the nonsense of this babel of juxtaposed sounds; many call it the new Sun Ra but sometimes it just seems to me like a more confused Tricky.

Take as a paradigm for the entire album "Acknowledgement (In 3 Parts)" which, with its complex 18 minutes, leaves the listener speechless..real doubts between genius and wonder, between boredom and highly inspired ideas. Remarkable is the construction with all the spoken words scattered throughout the album as in "No Visible Colors" among whispers and indistinct chatter, but also flutes and cellos present unexpectedly without apparent connection. "Eclipse" rekindles hopes of framing these notes into a splendid fresco of today’s world, I consider it the point to start thinking positively about this CD, but then I lose myself again.
Perhaps it's me who is far from being a black DJ in the great Chicago, perhaps our roots are too distant, perhaps I don’t have 70 minutes to dedicate to it in a day, perhaps it represents the album of a lifetime, but maybe not...

There are days when I find myself predisposed to the right listening of "Age", willing up to the first half, enthusiastic at times and then lost, caught in doubt that it might just be a great critical montage or the right album at the right time for many people who were waiting for it without knowing what they really wanted.
For this, I overturn the plan of the review, I tell my opinions openly as if it were a debate and I don't even believe one can have a precise idea about it, be wary of those who claim it’s the best album of the noughties because they are just trying to be impressive and surprise you, also be wary of those who discard it, because that would at least be unfair, but do not distrust those who have spoken to you openly about it, only then will you understand who has listened to it.