VARIOUS ARTISTS/MIXED BY JOE RANSOM
FabricLive 20
(Fabric/DMC)
When do mixes succeed more directly—when they act as testament to a particular DJ's mixing skills or when they shed a certain necessary light on a burgeoning scene? At first, it looks like the 20th installation of the FabricLive mix series, helmed by Fabric regular Joe Ransom, hits on both levels. But once you get past the well-constructed way Ransom streamlines the mix's ascension from down-tempo, bass-heavy hip-hop into heavy electro, the feeling eventually sinks in that the first third is merely foreplay. The two big-name buzz-clip lures here are M.I.A.'s "Galang"—sandwiched brilliantly between Luv Lite Massive's spare buzz-bomb ragga "Bun De Wikkid" and the planet-rocking Stanton Warriors remix of the Nextmen's arcade anthem "High Score"—and Dizzee Rascal's "Stand Up Tall," which sends shivers up the spine when that familiar boop-boo-weep begins to crest over the coda of Cane Matto's breakbeat burner "Ain't Nuttin to It! (Part Two)." But to get to the live, dirty, flip-the-fuck-out electro/grime hype segment, there's 15 opening minutes of understimulating U.K. rap to nod your head halfheartedly along with. Yeah, the dancehall-style flow of Rodney P rocks well over rudie hip-hop on "The Nice Up," and Ty's strikingly gruff-voiced "So You Want Morre? (Refix)" would be the best Timbaland rip-off on the charts if U.S. radio broke it. But on a comp end-loaded with evidence of the U.K.'s vibrant grime and electro scenes and surrounded by moribund post–Ninja Tune corn (the first track includes samples of a square narrator instructing listeners on how to put their turntable together, fer chrissakes), they sound like the last great gasps before the future finally takes over. NATE PATRIN
Ed Westmacott
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DROP THE LIME
This Means Forever
(Tigerbeat6)
I read somewhere about breakcore: "not for romantics." The style's current posse—Venetian Snares, Sickboy, and granddaddy DJ Scud—push the bpm, break apart the samples, and contort the hip-hop-generated beats until all blood boils without supplying the feet. As a genre, it came from the late-'90s moment when drum and bass and rave either went mental or missing. The liner notes of This Means Forever shout out "all the raver/junglists who called it quits in '98/'99," when, at age 17, Luca Venezia held it down with the faithful few. Now a Bard College grad and musique concrètefan boy with a handful of raw 12-inches, mad ears, snippets of sentimentality, and even a sense of humor, he records as Drop the Lime. While Venezia is currently bringing the lo-fi of grime stateside as promoter of N.Y.C.'s Bangers and Mash party, his full-length debut is pristine, clean-cut, and almost wide-eyed, if not exactly innocent. Most of Forever's 17 tracks feature remembered rave-anthem lyric fragments sung with a paranoid, swooping attack, a coked-up but conscious tribute to Fugazi's Guy Picciotto. Digi-dark bass lines slink throughout—on "Glassy Eyes," as industrial panic laced with girlfriend MC Minty's whisper, or as power-downs under discordant doubled vocals on "Soundboy," or turned into rubber synth-flutes under a hopped-up Fellini moment, "Amrcrd Gold." Then, after a lull, is "Rad Girl Killy," a track so wickedly cut up, ridiculously sub–bass heavy, gnarled, and broken, it reminds me why I left the jungle room in the first place—I couldn't move as fast as kids. How much faster can the kids get, I wonder? DAPHNE CARR
