Jonathan Hill

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Jul
7

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Chase and Status No More Idols Review

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Chase and Status No More Idols Review

Artist: Chase and Status
Album: No More Idols
Genre(s): Electronic, Hip Hop
Subgenres(s): Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Grime
Released: 2011
Length: 59 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Mercury, Vertigo

Track List:

01. No Problem
02. Fire in Your Eyes (feat. Maverick Sabre)
03. Let You Go (feat. Mali)
04. Blind Faith (feat. Liam Bailey)
05. Fool Yourself (feat. Plan B & Rage)
06. Hypest Hype (feat. Tempa T)
07. Hitz (feat. Tinie Tempah)
08. Heavy (vs. Dizzee Rascal)
09. Brixton Briefcase (feat. Cee-Lo Green)
10. Hocus Pocus
11. Flashing Lights (with Sub Focus feat. Takura)
12. Embrace (feat. White Lies)
13. Time (feat. Delilah)
14. Midnight Caller (feat. Clare Maguire)
15. End Credits (feat. Plan B)

Chase and Status No More Idols Cover

No More Idols is the second album by British duo Chase and Status. For almost every song they have enlisted a different singer, which is a good way to draw some attention to themselves with the likes of Plan B, Cee-Lo Green and Dizzee Rascal all making appearances but this ultimately backfires and makes No More Idols sounds like a compilation rather than an original studio album.

Each song sounds like it was written specifically with the singer in mind, turning No More Idols into a commercialised portfolio for Chase and Status to show off their creative muscles by jumping between drum and bass, dubstep and hip hop to display their versatility as producers. The songs have been roughly arranged into 3 different styles; starting out with dance orientated songs that transition into the rap inspired portion of the album before tailing off into some quieter, ballad-esque songs as the album winds down.

As individual songs they are accessible to a wide audience but when they are put together to form a whole album it immediately turns into a disjointed collection that lost focus the moment producers Chase and Status enlisted an all-star cast to front their efforts.

Mar
17

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SPY What the Future Holds Review

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Artist: SPY
Album: What the Future Holds
Genre(s): Electronic
Subgenres(s): Drum and Bass, Liquid Funk
Released: 2012
Length: 73 minutes
Language(s): English
Label(s): Hospital Records

Track List:

01. You
02. Analogue Dreams (feat. Diane Charlemagne)
03. Back Again
04. Love Hurts
05. Infiltrate
06. See the Light (feat. Diane Charlemagne)
07. What the Future Holds (feat. Ian Shaw)
08. Surge
09. Hammer in My Heart (feat. Diane Charlemagne)
10. Nightcall
11. Bass Terror
12. Adrift
13. Kiss the Sky

SPY What The Future Holds Cover

SPY What the Future Holds Review

SPY (or S.P.Y.) is the alias of Carlos Lima, a Brazilian born, London based musician who released his first full length album, What the Future Holds, in 2012 through Hospital Records after issuing a number of EPs dating back to 2006. He focuses largely on the liquid funk branch of drum and bass and combines a heavy dose of ambiance mixed with loud, repetitive percussion to keep the songs moving forward.

He expands on his sound to create the standout crossover song Love Hurts, which has slow jazz piano chords playing with a subtle double bass and jazz drumming that is at times washed out by the overlain drum and bass percussion. While the jazz portion of the song is a slightly sped up sample of My Precious Thing by Llorca, the only other obvious samples that exist on the album are the distorted spoken word dialogue on Surge that has been lifted from the Remedy Entertainment video game Max Payne and a telephone being dialled and ringing on Kiss the Sky.

More notably, the title track has a live performance of an oboe, bassoon and flute performed by Emily Johnston, Harry Ventham and Gemma Hawkins respectively, which are used to create a cinematic quality within the song and departs entirely from the drum and bass sound for roughly half of its length.

Diane Charlemagne creates some memorable vocal performances on Analogue Dreams, See the Light and Hammer in My Heart, helping to distinguish the songs on the instrumentally lead album. Vocalist Ian Shaw features on the title track but unfortunately, like the jazz drumming on Love Hurts, he has to compete with the percussion to be heard clearly during his performance. Minor edited background vocals are also present on Bass Terror and Adrift but don’t have the same presence as the other performances.

Unfortunately, What the Future Holds loses steam about 3/4 of the way into the album. This is partially due to most of the songs keeping a similar pace throughout, but mainly because SPY fails to justify the excessive length of the album, as there isn’t always enough material to flesh the songs out for as long as they are while keeping the listener engaged. If the CD edition was cut back to the length on the vinyl release (songs 1 to 8, making it 46 minutes long) then the condensed time would have greatly improve the listening experience.

External Links:

SPY Homepage
SPY on Discogs | What the Future Holds on Discogs