I really don't want to be known as that reviewer who hates dance music and always gives dance albums scathing reviews. While the latter may be largely true, the former isn't, not really. It's only crap dance music I can't abide. The trouble is, that's most of it.
I'm painfully aware that by levelling accusations of sameness at the beats-by-numbers bangin choons that the kids are getting down to, I look like I'm aspiring to replace whoever croaks next on 'Grumpy Old Men,' so if only for this reason, I desperately wanted to find something positive to say about 'From the Roots.'
'Roots Intro' suggests it might just be possible, too: a dubby reggae piece with a groovin' sax, it hints that Punx Soundcheck might be embarking on an exploration of a dance cross of roots reggae and the Electro / Rave / House they specialise in.
No such luck. After this misleading introduction, it's straight down to pumping club-friendly beats and repetitive three-note basslines couples with stabbing synths and snippets of sampled vocals, single lines cut and looped over and over. The majority of the vocals are distinctly Jamaican in flavour, but it's rather corny and cliche.
Guests vocalists come and go, with Sim: One and C. Monts both appearing on a couple of tracks, the former contributing some quickfire but largely uninspired and uninspiring cockney rhymes ('Badboy Sound' is particularly wearisome), the latter delivering some Dalston street wisdom and successfully dropping his own name with indefatigable enthusiasm.
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'Rocker Time Style' may still grate, but crass self-promotion aside marks something of a departure from the dancefloor dreariness with a pulverising industrial percussion. After that, though, it's back to boredom-inducing business as usual.
'Cassette' is a six-and-a-half-minute skull-crushingly monotonous combination of pounding beat and a bassline that's both woozy and stammering, with the tedium punctuated by the occasional interjection of the looped vocal directing us to 'rock da house.' Herein lies one of my fundamental objections to dance music. Because I don't dance and don't like clubbing (I'm 34, married, misanthropic and not into mind-altering substances), it has little to offer me. I can't relate. There's no emotional dimension for me to explore, and the simple fact is that I can't connect with it on any level. Nevertheless, I did say that I wanted to find something positive to say about this album, and I meant it. So here it is: it's unlikely to be the worst or most boring album I'll hear all decade, or even all year.
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