A recent record, but definitely an unsung one which I have repeatedly listened to over the four years since its release. It deserves a place here, because I know many of you like much of the music it is related to but I think it metaphorically pisses all over the more airy-fairy 90’s ‘ambient’ music which has gained more critical plaudits and a wider audience than this record.

The explosion of the ‘ambient’ scene in the 90’s spawned a New York offshoot of this genre which was termed ‘Illbient’. DJ Spooky stands head-and-shoulders above all his contemporaries on this scene and has released some amazing recordings which showcase his dexterity with samplers, decks, keyboards and the odd bit of bass guitar. He is also an awesomely eloquent commentator on the state of music and its sociological origins and implications. This means that with every DJ Spooky release you get copious sleevenotes, which are by turns inspired, frustrating, funny, verbose and informative.

The New York origins of this music give a clue to the contents of this disc. These are urban meditation grooves. Sound familiar? Well, it should because much of this double album sounds like the stateside cousin of Cope’s ‘Rite’. It works in a similar way, with grooves starting and then being maintained. Clicks and scratches and slightly off-kilter looping of samples gives the whole thing a distinctly urban feel. It does feel like we’re in the hands of a DJ, rather than a conventional musician. But how well those samples are chosen! The whole thing starts of by dropping us right into the heart of the urban chaos with slow record scratching turning into police sirens which slow down and speed up at will. A dense ambient soundscape develops. The floatation is bought to a halt as ‘Galactic Funk’ crashes in. A bass-heavy hip-hop groove with spaceship wibbly noises loops round and round and is then replaced by another sample which is another groove maintained, but this time it’s a Funkadelic record which has got stuck, with its groovesome guitar twang pulling the listener into a trance. We’re then treated to a dub-out with ‘Hologrammic Dub’, which warps and distorts as its cycles repeat, repeat, repeat. ‘Dance Of The Morlocks’ is a creepy, cavernous synth meditation. A touch of woozy end-of-the-pier wurlitzer leads into ‘Juba’s industrial ambient Cluster ’71 humming, with a nomadic African tribe moving past us. The wurlitzer player slows down and collapses on his keyboard. ‘Thoughts Like Rain’ fuses what sounds like a BBC Radiophonic Workshop loop with a very stoned, tranced out jazzy electric drummer who also finally collapses on his instrument as Cluster barge in again with their almost overwhelming buzzing. And we’re only halfway there!…

The second disc (or track 9 onwards on the CD) starts with ‘Anansi Abstrakt’ which layers a looped flute line with dubby, reverbed-to-fuck drumming and a skanking wheezy harmonica. ‘Grapheme’ is all burbling analogue synth sounds with a heavily processed orchestra washing over us in waves. Vibes begin to dominate and are joined by a slow hippedy-hoppy drum line. It all sounds like the soundtrack to a ketamine-inspired spy film. ‘Nihilismus Dub’ is the music from a cellar jazz bar spilling out into a heat haze night-time cityscape. ‘The Terran Invasion Of Alpha Centauri Year 2794’ starts off sounding like Edgar Froese circa ‘Aqua’, then a distant harp loop comes in and out as a funky bass line loops. Drums eventually join it and all these elements drop in and out at will. ‘High Density’ is just that: Dubby drums give way to a drum and bass rhythm which is treated in a dub way, as it warps in and out of shape and keyboard lines are reverbed to sound like a distant rave wafting over on the breeze.

Overall this is a nocturnal, metropolitan dubscape which shows The Future Sound Of London a thing or two about groove and feel. If The Orb had a switchblade in its pocket and a sneer they might have sounded more like this. As I said DJ Spooky knows how to use words, so I’ll quote from his sleevenotes: “…cross-fades, sonic shock-wave sounds of seismic bass disruption, pitch, tempo, the inertial drag of bass de-tuned, compressed and pitch-shifted down, drums pitched upwards and downwards, sound as a unified field of spatial representation with its own aural logic, ego become a sonic wave form in the chaotic urban landscape of inner city pressure…these are the things that go through my mind when I make music…”

‘Nuff said!

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NB: ‘Viral Sonata’ is a more ethereal excursion which sounded too reverb drenched when I first heard it, but if in the right state of (un)consciousness does work pretty well.
‘Riddim Warfare’ is a more upfront, up-tempo affair, including some vocals. It’s much patchier and less individual than the other releases.