From Arthur B. Purvis Sent Fri, Sep 18th 1998, 08:04
From Arthur B. Purvis Sent Fri, Sep 18th 1998, 08:04
>Sorry to sound like a whining dissenter, but as a long, long time fan of >all of Kevin Martin's projects, I must say I am utterly disappointed in >the latest Ice cd. Well over half of my collection is hiphop, so I don't >mind the crossover attempt they're trying to pull off (I think DJ Vadim >and Mark B pretty much wrote the book on it already however), but it just >comes off incredibly half-assed and gimmicky to me. Not to mention, I I am mostly curious - how could you be a big fan of Techno Animal/God and dismiss this record as "gimmicky" and/or "half-assed?" Techno Animal is inherently gimmicky - the gimmick is distortion. Same as Alec Empire and Panacea - I think all are top notch. Also, the Ice record really isn't such a far stretch from recent Techno Animal 12"s to Ice, so I'm curious how you could have such a different opinion of the two. >have yet to hear one decent MC come out of Europe (besides Roots Maneuva >and Le Gooster). I would have liked it more as an instrumental album, but >as it is I couldnt even listen to it all the way through when I first got >it. Well, like I said, neither Sebastian nor El-P nor Sensational are from Europe. Also, Sebastian is about the best MC ever. Period. Listen to the New Kingdom record - there is no MC at all like him, except the other guy in New Kingdom. Too bad they didn't give him more leeway on the Ice record, but it's still top notch spacey _epic_ material (his level of knowledge of bizarre cosmic phenomena, Norse mythology, and 67 stingrays doesn't come across unfortunately). Sensational's pretty far out there too, but his solo record, while nice, is more impressive for its utter and complete fuckedness than for any actual quality level. For the record, he was originally a member of what became known as the Jungle Brothers (if we are to believe Wordsound). More importantly - I responded because recently I heard Funkungfusion. The RootsManuva track is _amazing_ - Clockwise or something? Was wondering if someone could recommend a record or tell me if the rest of his stuff is that good. Best track on the comp, easy (though if the Coldcut track were reduced to the last minute - the scratching of "Peter and the Wolf" slightly off time over huge breaks - it would be a contender). Oh yeah, and how does the Mos Def/Kweli 12" compare to their track on Soundbombing? I think it was Fortified Live (correct me if I'm wrong) - I thought it was pretty dull, but a good friend who listens to almost exclusively hiphop thought it was one of the best tracks he's heard in a long time. --- the humble abbott arthur purvis set his hand hereto