Touching Down

From URB Magazine
Nostalgia’s something of a stock response to sound grown sour, and in the case of drum & bass it’s understandable that many feel it for the moment when England’s most innovative weren’t deluding themselves by claiming to be the black Atlantic’s most recent heirs to jazz innovation. It’s not that the rotting started when the Amen waned and beats became perfect right angles, but somewhere between then and Bad Company, the genre’s frenetic drive toward a perfect inhuman future saw it exchanging the soul and funk of even its nastiest halcyon days for the robotic gloom of epileptic death marches. While London’s crowds responded by heading for garage, America’s hopeful found themselves deflated by blatant signs that jungle’s potential to breathe some fresh air into stateside sonics would go unfulfilled because of the former’s cyborg machismo. Grooverider’s "Heaven," early LTJ Bukem and Metalheadz tracks, Dillinja’s Valve cuts and Reprazent’s New Forms quickly became symbols of the good old days.

But if longing for the bygone is like a reflex for fans, it’s unthinkable for the best musicians and producers, who often maintain a sense of cool resistance to sonic fashion change. If his latest full-length is any indication, then Roni Size still belongs in that category — Touching Down evokes the unique funk sensibilities that made his seminal V Records and Full Cycle tracks so damn fresh, while giving you the sense that England’s Bristolian isn’t returning to his original sound because he never left it behind. The disc is a compilation of both new tracks and others previously released only as singles convincingly mixed into a DJ set that finds Size in the hard-edged club mode through which he’d first made his name. Sharp edges and frantic bass lines aren’t lacking here, and they’re simultaneously both contemporary and part of a recent yesteryear that Size still inhabits.

If Size’s music seems to follow its own calendar, it’s in part due to his unique method of working and arranging samples. The most compelling junglist heavyweights can be identified solely by their unique drum sounds, bass tones, and beats, and Size’s old magic doesn’t fail here. He mutates brass fragments, time-stretches human voices and de-contextualizes found sound like no one else does, then assembles everything into ferocious funk machines that run on subtly intertwined dual breakbeat batteries. The urgent and moody soul aesthetic of all that was right about old tracks like "Music Box," "Jazz" and "Only a Dream" is alive and well here and are still capable of waking dead bodies by sending high-wattage bolts of soul to the central nervous system.

Half the energy is in Size’s sense of melody. The disc’s opener, the club favorite "Sound Advice," bounces between a melancholy bass line and a pop harp hook, and then immediately freefalls into the nastier territories of "Forget Me Knots." The cuts continue to truck back and forth between the smooth and the frantic, but what distinguishes Size here is his ability to fuse driving, anxious bass lines with more simple atmospherics to create a calm eye in the mist of a sonic hurricane ("Feel the Heat"). It’s a skill that was evident early on in his work, and its reappearance will cause droves of listeners to reminisce about they heyday of drum & bass, one that still lives in Size’s fecund imagination.

Pete Skafish

Product Description
2002 album for the Mercury Prize Award winning artist, his first for Full Cycle Records. 16 tracks mixed by the man himself. Includes the singles, 'Sound Advice', 'Playtime', 'Scrambled Eggs' & 'Serious Intentions'.

Touching Down,Roni Size,Full Cycle [Studio],Club/Dance,Dance,Dance Music,Drum & Bass,Jungle/Drum'n'bass,Pop

Average customer rating: Let it grow on you. nothing new, but so what, roni size is awesome Dont believe the hype Drum n' Bass Isn't Dead absolutely avoid this album

Touching Down Roni Size Manufacturer: Full Cycle [Studio] ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Drum & Bass | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music Drum & Bass | Dance & DJ | Indie Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: In the Mode Through the Eyes New Forms At Close Range: Mix CD The 6ixth Session ASIN: B00006JS6J Release Date: 2002-11-05

Tracks:

1. Sound Advice
2. Forget Me Knots
3. Playtime
4. Scrambled Eggs
5. Uncensored
6. At The Movies
7. Vocoda Funk
8. Sorry For You
9. Feel The Heat
10. Siren Sounds
11. Keep Strong
12. Find Myself
13. Reel Dark One
14. Swings N Roundabouts
15. Zak Attak
16. Snapshot 3

Album Description

2002 album for the Mercury Prize Award winning artist, his first for Full Cycle Records. 16 tracks mixed by the man himself. Includes the singles, 'Sound Advice', 'Playtime', 'Scrambled Eggs' & 'Serious Intentions'.

Customer Reviews:

Let it grow on you........2005-05-07

This is definately not a dark DnB album. Those who are fans of that kind wouldn't really like this at first. I myself like dark DnB. Listen to this cd a good 3 or 4 times and you'll see theres a lot of thought put into it. This is a CD that will strongly grow on you, it did with me.

nothing new, but so what, roni size is awesome.......2005-04-22

I agree with the detractors who say that this album is nothing new. I appreciate size's innovation and experimentation, I consider him to be the most important producer in dnb because he doesn't seem to get tied down by the semantics and nonsense that mire most purists in homogeneity and boredom. I would've loved another strange, experimental album following In the Mode, but i like roni size's music just as much as his innovation, and a solid 70 minutes of straight up top-quality DnB is nothing to complain about. Size is among the best producers of drum and bass regardless of how far from the norm he chooses to stray.

The cd is basically a dj set composed of all original tracks, and true to the nature of any dj set, besides a few standouts the tracks are mostly indistinct from one another. You have to listen to it as if it were a dj set, which is where it departs from traditional roni size territory. New Forms, like Goldie's Timeless, was primarily -not- a dancefloor record, and while In the Mode was more danceable it was presented in a pop album format. Touching Down however, sounds like it could've been recorded right off of a club PA system in Bristol. It's just straight beats, pure unadulterated drum and bass.

if you have musical ADD or are the sort of person that can't stand hearing something that was popular 6 months ago because its "so outdated" then skip this outdated and repetitive album and go buy Return to V since its out now. but if you actually enjoy dnb, then here is 70 minutes of some of the best dnb around

Dont believe the hype.......2004-06-09

This album is nothing like Roni's last album: the beats and breaks here are completely repetitive. Listen to one song and you've basically listened to the whole album. No guest vocals either, nothing experimental or new. Just a plain album. A real let-down after his last album. The album had potential, but didn't fulfill my expectations. Get Aphrodite's last album instead. Much better.

Drum n' Bass Isn't Dead.......2004-05-04

So where has drum n' bass gone? LTJ Bukem hasn't changed a whole lot. Goldie and Grooverider are the masters but nothing really new from them. Roni Size keeps chugging along. This album is a masterpiece. Darker and heavier than New Forms. I was on a search for fresh drum n' bass and my search has ended. Get this album and lets help keep drum n' bass alive. Goldie and Grooverider, lets hear some new stuff. It's not too late for the masters to take back their throne. For now, Roni is sitting there. Also check out the remix album to New Forms called Replica. It's a Japanese import, and well worth it.

absolutely avoid this album.......2003-07-05

this is one of the worst album i've ever bought it's too heavy for my tastes, i prefere something like "new forms" or even "in the mode" but surely not this one.... i think the first two where very sperimental records and (above all the first record) where good cds but this one is cheap teeny music i think it will be a 15ers choice...when the kids will grow they'll tear apart this album for something better i hope!!!! (i gave it 1 star cuz you can't give 0 stars!!!)

Average customer rating:

I Bow Down / Throne of Grace - Touching the Father's Heart (Live Worship) Manufacturer: Vineyard Music Group ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Praise & Worship | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music Similar Items: Throne of Grace - Touching the Father's Heart #12 Live Worship: Touching the Father's Heart #26: Faithful Father ASIN: B0007LXQZS

Average customer rating:

I Bow Down - Touching the Father's Heart #11 Manufacturer: Vineyard Ministries Int'l ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Praise & Worship | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music Similar Items: Save Us Oh God / Take Our Lives - Touching the Father's Heart Throne of Grace - Touching the Father's Heart #12 Live From Brownsville ASIN: B00065FWQG

Product Description

Live Worship songs of the Vineyard.

Average customer rating:

Touching Down, Vol. 2 Roni Size Manufacturer: Full Cycle [Studio] ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Drum & Bass | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music Britain | British Isles | Europe | International | Styles | Music ASIN: B000A9QKWS Release Date: 2006-06-13

Tracks:

1. Internal Dialogue
2. Belief System
3. Choose Consciousness
4. How to Mutate
5. Human Awareness
6. Mystery School
7. Initiation
8. Rhodes Less Travelled
9. New Humans

Tracks:

1. Jazz Note
2. Guess
3. Memories
4. Maintain
5. Last Day
6. Soul in Motion
7. Warhead
8. Kloakin' Device

Average customer rating:

Phases of Love Joy Manufacturer: Joy's Music ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music ASIN: B000CAJO14 Release Date: 2005-02-08

Tracks:

1. Crazy
2. Take My Time with You
3. Ecstasy
4. Feels Good
5. So Funky
6. Phases of Love
7. I Said No
8. Party Going On
9. Coming & Going
10. New World
11. Can We Keep It Real
12. Smile Again
13. Head Over Heels
14. Strength for Living

Average customer rating:

Touching Hearts Through Music Joseph Samuels Messina Manufacturer: Artist International Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | New Age | Styles | Music ASIN: B000CA8V0E Release Date: 2005-08-16

Tracks:

1. Passion of Nybor
2. Deyanira
3. Alina
4. Cabochon
5. Joseph's Love
6. Omen's Prayer
7. Alegria
8. Raphaele
9. Regalo
10. Daniella
11. Del Soul
12. Integra
13. Romenia
14. Othello
15. Pemberton
16. De Sueno Dreams

Average customer rating: Great CD - Great Cause - Great Value Great Music for a Greater Cause Excellent collection of artists for a CD

Hearts Across the Ocean... Hands Across the Sea, A Collection of Celtic Music Brendan Heart Fund Manufacturer: mastermindproductions ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Irish Folk | Traditional British & Celtic Folk | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music ASIN: B000EYQC6I

Product Description

A Collection of Celtic Music 2CD Set of top North American and international Celtic Musicians by the Emerald Society of Wisconsin 2006 Brendan Heart Fund The Brendan Heart Fund was started at Milwaukee Children's Hospital in 1987 in memory of young Brendan Ward. It supports cardiac care for children, including diagnosis, treatment, and research. In 1990 the Emerald Society of Wisconsin selected the Brendan Heart Fund as it's charity, and began raising funds on it's behalf. In January of 2005, Child Magazine rated the cardiac program of Milwaukee Children's Hospital as one of the top five programs of its kind in the United States. The artists on this album have generously donated their music to help raise funds for this deserving cause. They come from Ireland, Atlantic Canada, and the United States and have joined their hands and hearts to help children in need. A 2 disc collection who have donated their music to these CD's for the Non-Profit benefit of the Brendan Heart Fund. This CD may not be copied or reproduced without express permission from the Artists

Customer Reviews:

Great CD - Great Cause - Great Value.......2006-05-03

This is the second compilation done to support the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Awsome set of tunes! Don't miss it!!

Great Music for a Greater Cause.......2006-05-03

I got this CD at the Emerald Society Fund Raiser. It is a wonderful collection from the US, Canada and Ireland. If you want a good taste of Irish Music, this is the CD for you. PLUS all profits go to for heart reseach at Children's Hospital - Wisconsin.

Excellent collection of artists for a CD.......2006-03-15

Picked up this CD in Chicago (just came out this year) and has a great collection of known as well as upcoming artists from the midwest. On top of that, I understand that the money goes right a charity called Brendan Heart Fund in Milwaukee at some Children's Hospital. Highly recommend for others.

Album Review:

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3. Virgins & Philistines
4. We Are Povo
5. Who Made Who [Explicit Lyrics]
6. Wikki Wikki [CD-single] [Import]
7. 10,000 Hz Legend/Moon Safari/Premier Symptomes
8. A Modo Mio [Import]
9. A State of Trance: The Collected 12" Mixes [Import]
10. Abstract Afro Journey

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