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Never quite welcomed with open arms into the drum & bass fraternity--too studied, too intellectual--and criticised by purists for their commercial dalliance with Everything But The Girl (on the track "Walking Wounded"), John Coxon and Ashley Wales have continued to follow their own course, attempting to reconcile their eclectic musical influences (Stockhausen, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, 70s dub reggae, electro, Krautrock) with the musical vocabulary of their chosen genre. More than anything, the duo seem to understand (and cater to) the essential paradox of drum & bass: a form of "dance music" that
Never quite welcomed with open arms into the drum & bass fraternity--too studied, too intellectual--and criticised by purists for their commercial dalliance with Everything But The Girl (on the track "Walking Wounded"), John Coxon and Ashley Wales have continued to follow their own course, attempting to reconcile their eclectic musical influences (Stockhausen, Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, 70s dub reggae, electro, Krautrock) with the musical vocabulary of their chosen genre. More than anything, the duo seem to understand (and cater to) the essential paradox of drum & bass: a form of "dance music" that's actually isolationist rather than communal, interior rather than hedonistic. Like Autechre--another outfit more concerned with impressionistic detail than familiar structures--their music is alternately soothing and abrasive, a complex mesh of ricocheting breakbeats and subsonic bass, whose occasional flourishes (a cascade of lush strings, the elastic twang of a guitar hook) lend it a surprising emotive resonance. Too clever for some, perhaps. But genuinely groundbreaking. --Andrew McGuire
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Manufacturer: Polygram Records
Release date: 23 September 1997
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0731452443724 UPC: 731452443724
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