Zomby:
With Love:
4AD:
Out Now:
3 x LP:
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
The mysterious producer's last few releases helped spearhead 4AD's more recent foray into electronica, earning its creator and the label no end of acclaim and props. Zomby's 2011 Dedication album was hailed by some as a natural stepping stone from the darker, industrial and less anonymous Burial to a lighter more abrupt variation on the dubstep and techno theme. With both landmark producers currently out of the way, Zomby could have nailed it with this fourth full-length set and, to a certain extent, he has. Just.
Vinyl heads can look forward to flexing their muscles and testing their weight-lifting skills by transporting a triple vinyl omnibus home with them, a rather beautiful but slightly extravagant package for such a simplistic release. Although there are 33 tracks to negotiate on With Love, only two-thirds deserve to be here and only a quarter exceed three minutes in length, many being just excerpts or insights into what could have been.
Still, on the positive side, much of With Love is an engaging listen, in particular the first half of the set including the opening trio of fidgety urbane tracks and, later on, the longest piece here, Memories, all four minutes and four seconds of it. Some of the more minute selections are good enough to prompt frustration when they end suddenly after a minute or so, while a few provoke a shrug and a 'next'. Trademark old-skool beats and rave-breaks return for a couple of speaker-scaring tunes, namely Overdose and It's Time (the latter replete with a 'it's time to get fuckin' mental' motif throughout), while hip-hop and grime inspires Pray For Me and Detroit techno rears it's head on This One.
If you're wondering how an album that appears so tangibly stretched between this many genres can work as a coherent listen, wonder no more - the first twenty tracks are surprisingly related. There is little brightness here, only darkness with a chink of light for dramatic effect. Dogs bark on Vanishment, sirens scream on VI-XI and jungle basslines swoop on 777, yet it all bears the same Zomby hallmark - brevity.
But by sides E and F, it all starts to plummet, both in creative and varied terms. Sure, Glass Ocean is a pretty little retro number, but surrounding it are several identical tracks that fail to break sweat or change gear. Yep, heavy booming bottom notes and biscuit-tin snares can be fun for one track or even five minutes, but not for an entire disc, a shameful waste of wax. That could have been the difference between £25 and £20, quite frankly.
To be fair though, Zomby's technical abilities and vivid imagination could have made a great 45 minute album. Sadly, the over-long With Love isn't - it's just engaging in parts, frustrating in others. Superb sleeve though.
With Love:
4AD:
Out Now:
3 x LP:
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Vinyl heads can look forward to flexing their muscles and testing their weight-lifting skills by transporting a triple vinyl omnibus home with them, a rather beautiful but slightly extravagant package for such a simplistic release. Although there are 33 tracks to negotiate on With Love, only two-thirds deserve to be here and only a quarter exceed three minutes in length, many being just excerpts or insights into what could have been.
Still, on the positive side, much of With Love is an engaging listen, in particular the first half of the set including the opening trio of fidgety urbane tracks and, later on, the longest piece here, Memories, all four minutes and four seconds of it. Some of the more minute selections are good enough to prompt frustration when they end suddenly after a minute or so, while a few provoke a shrug and a 'next'. Trademark old-skool beats and rave-breaks return for a couple of speaker-scaring tunes, namely Overdose and It's Time (the latter replete with a 'it's time to get fuckin' mental' motif throughout), while hip-hop and grime inspires Pray For Me and Detroit techno rears it's head on This One.
If you're wondering how an album that appears so tangibly stretched between this many genres can work as a coherent listen, wonder no more - the first twenty tracks are surprisingly related. There is little brightness here, only darkness with a chink of light for dramatic effect. Dogs bark on Vanishment, sirens scream on VI-XI and jungle basslines swoop on 777, yet it all bears the same Zomby hallmark - brevity.
But by sides E and F, it all starts to plummet, both in creative and varied terms. Sure, Glass Ocean is a pretty little retro number, but surrounding it are several identical tracks that fail to break sweat or change gear. Yep, heavy booming bottom notes and biscuit-tin snares can be fun for one track or even five minutes, but not for an entire disc, a shameful waste of wax. That could have been the difference between £25 and £20, quite frankly.
To be fair though, Zomby's technical abilities and vivid imagination could have made a great 45 minute album. Sadly, the over-long With Love isn't - it's just engaging in parts, frustrating in others. Superb sleeve though.