To the great unwashed, it's still RONI SIZE'S Mercury Music Prize-related work with Reprazent that counts, but he's diligently maintained an underground profile as well: continually releasing product on the Full Circle imprint since 1993 and weighing in with production work ( see the recent, critically-acclaimed Tali album) in addition to his DJ sets.
Available as a 2 x 12" release (and also downloadable through his website), "Out Of Breath" is the trailer single for Roni's new "Return To V" album and features him going back to his roots in tandem with Bryan Gee and Jumping Jack Frost's V label.
Featuring RAHZEL, "Out Of Breath" is a beat-the-clock, hi-BPM heatbeat-racing dance track, built (literally) around a breathless sample and pacy beats. Rahzel's contribution is spooked and echoed, and while the track itself is hypnotic and aimed squarely at the dancefloor, in atmosphere terms it has as much in common with early, weirded-out Cabaret Voltaire as the usual drum'n'bass suspects.
"Bump'n'Grind" (featuring Sweetpea) continues in the frenetic, analogous vein. If anything, it's even more extreme than "Out Of Breath" and when Sweetpea boasts "there's a method to this madness you can't resist" he ain't kidding, buster.
|
"(With)out Of Breath" is, as you'll probably have guessed, is a streamlined, motorik remake of "Out Of Breath", with burpier synths and a minimlistic bent which gets to the very heary of the beat, while the second single culminates in "Shoulder To Shoulder." Heavily-flanged drum'n'bass featuring Die and Hollie G, it's OK and will surely cause a stir on the dancefloor, though - as is often the case with groove-based stuff like this - it's meagre in terms of excitement in the living room.
Still, "Out Of Breath" is a decent reminder and wake-up call from one of drum'n'bass's perennials. Mutterings of greatness concerning the new album's greatness are starting to waft this way too, so let's hope the wind stays with them.
|
