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Rating: Drops. Electronic drops fall from the ceiling, the environment around me is dark and damp. I try to orient myself, my sight gets used to the darkness... it feels like being in a basement, probably in a Bristol suburb, these are the sensations evoked by listening to this CD.
The album's release year is 1999, quite distant from the trip-hop explosion of the early 90s, branded by Massive Attack, Portishead, and Tricky; but very close to those sounds, so dear to me...
We were talking about Tricky, the bad boy lends his vocal cords in “Bombing Bastards,” a marvelous track where electronic drops overlap with his slithering and scratchy voice, giving us 5 minutes of claustrophobic intensity.
"X-Files" is the title of the first track, its dark sound and hip-hop singing make it similar to "I against I" by Massive Attack and Mos Def.
One risks getting lost listening to "Sugarhill," instrumentally unsettling... thoughts drift away, needing to be called to order, or maybe not... one increasingly realizes that the sweltering basement in which one finds themselves suits this music perfectly; "Turn Around" confirms it, with deep bass and underwater noises paired with a delicate yet sticky voice.
Skipping to “Never,” we are welcomed by a rattling lament that together with unsettling singing, makes this the darkest and gloomiest track on the album, a touch of light is given by “Midnight Melodic” and “Midnight Melodic (Chase the Blues),” the same plot for two different stories, the hip-hop version lends itself to metropolitan listening with baggy pants, while the “female” version is for the home couch dreaming of warm and sweet caresses.
The melodious song of a Formula 1 V10 engine echoes between the walls of the basement, thus begins “Plastic Stress,” a hysterical and insistent voice that shakes the soul in the initial solo, keeping us glued to the “seat” with the classic and rough “Bristol” style.
A drop falls on my face, I wake up, I was dreaming... the CD continues to play in sequence, I must remember to fix that cursed pipe...
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