Customer Reviews

Big Sound of the Drag

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first heard "Action Radius" on Need for Speed Underground and it blew me away. XL's use of rock/punk elements spliced with Big-Beat and hard Techno grooves are amazing. Nothing I have heard in recent months comes close. In a world filled with Ushers, Britneys and J.Lo's, it is delicously refreshing to find an album like this. Look out for the "The power of big slacks," a symphonic master piece swirling with emotion! A big highlight!
Buy it, blast it, enjoy it! This album rocks!

Definitely a mix of a lot of other genres but done very well. I haven't run across anyone who's heard it that didn't like at least some of the CD. I would put this on the top of my "getting-out-of-the-shower-and-going-out" list.

Another great album fron Junkie XL, who once again partners with the Silver Surfing Rudeboy AKA Ronin to produce a second masterpiece of electronic musical artistry that really has to be listed in depth to be grasped. Powerful and fast-paced tracks like "Check your Basic Groove" and "Power of Big Slacks" keep you going, and the entire album sort of unfolds as one or two massive over-tracks as all the songs are made to flow into one another. The album has a few really long instrumental pieces("Power of Big Slacks (reprise)" comes to mind, at 11 minutes or so), but Junkie XL's talent is such that he/they can in fact manage to keep an 11-minute-long instrumental interesting. Songs such as "Zerotonine" and "Next Plateau" defy classification, spanning several genres simultaneously and producing results unlike anything else.

In conclusion, another must-have work by this artist whose future is still very, very bright.

This CD is by far the best techno/rock/rap/let-the-rage-out compilation of songs I have ever heard. I first listened to it when my roomate in the Netherlands, Arnaud, a Frenchman who did well with the ladies, introduced it to me. He had a ton of CD's I had never heard before but this one stuck out. I dont know where they are from but the beats are solid. Good music for those of you that dabble in rap and techno... but are still heavily grounded in good rock. Perfect driving music.

Rock is the place to be!

This album is fantastic... I can't get enough! This was the first JXL CD I bought (a while ago), after hearing somebody tried to palm off some Junkie XL tracks and some Lunatic Calm tracks, as a new Prodigy CD. Now I loved Prodigy, so thought I'd check these guys out...

GREAT idea. It's quite different to prodigy, but damn awesome, groovy and VERY danceable. My favourite track is Love Like Razorblade, and Future in Computer Hell is a close second, but it's all good!

Lunatic Calm is also a worthwhile listen. They had that song Leave you Far Behind (I wanna take you on a rollercoaster) that has been on about 8 movie soundtracks).

But yeah, check these guys out... be warned though, their latest offering is very poppy, and very different to this genius!

Junkie XL has always had his hardcore fans, and His recent remixing of the Elvis "A little less conversation" will undoubtedly bring him more admirers, yet it when he Satisfies his devoted user base, that his music exudes its greatest quality.....Lots of Uplifting Big Beat!!!, as well as a clear & Concise nod towards implementing the polar opposite sounds of "Rock" & "Dance" music, to a perfectly formed wholesome. First Track "Check Your Basic Groove", is a perfect case in point, with the surging guitar chorus kicking the track into life immediately, and fusing a Big Beat lyric & sound over the top, to tremendous effect, without sounding ill-conceived or inappropriate, and yet manages to somehow be something of an unmitigated `Floor Filler'. The whole album is something of a volatile mish-mash of `Electro, Hip-Hop, Punk-rock, Progressive techno', with it all being held together with flourishes of considered `Big Beat'.....and as noisy as hell (and all the better for it), the best accolade I can possibly bestow on this album is that it sounds like a Rockified version of "The Chemical Brothers" earlier work (Dig your own hole), which is a hefty complement indeed.

With "Saturday Teenage Kick", Junkie XL proved he could play with the big boys, partnered with the silver surfering rudeboy, they produced an album that was amazing for somewhat unknowns stateside. Receiving a small amount of publicity with the song "Dealing With the Roster" in the film blade. That is where I first heard them and then immediatly went and bought the album. After a first listen I was a little disapointed with both, but after listening to every song, you discover that Junkie XL kicks... It was a little dificult for me to get a hold of big sounds, but it is well worth the wait...

When Junkie XL came onto the music scene with 'Saturday Teenage Kicks' we in Holland knew we had something special. The two-man team of Tom Holkenborg and Rudeboy had already shown us what they could do in the decade before. Tom was a member of the bands Weekend at Waikiki and the industrial group Nerve. Rudeboy of course was the frontman of the now legendary Urban Dance Squad, that's right, the band Rage vs the Machine blatantly ripped off making them the worlds most unoriginal band.

Brilliant live shows made them a wanted guest at festivals and later with the Little Less Conversation commercial (with Elvis) more recognition came, also in computer games.

Rudeboy now has left Junkie XL and this album is their last work together, a great fin-de-siecle piece of music.

This CD does not have great songs like 'Billy Club' or 'Saturday Teenage Kicks' but the overall quality is outstanding. You almost feel like you are at their show. 'Check Your Basic Groove' is carried by a funky bassline and Rudeboy's shouts to awaken us all. 'Synasthesia' is a good piece of big beats with another melodic bassline. The song changed dramatically after about 3,5 minutes when it slowly drifts into a symphonic, almost new age like, piece. Strings, horns have a solo before they are mixed into the big beats again.

'Zerotonine' was the first single and is carried by little pieces of violin and Rudeboy's raps, like he also does on 'Legion' (with acoustic guitar)

And it goes on, there is not a bad track on the CD and it's a very worthy succesor to "Saturday Teenage Kicks".

If only there were more people as inventive as Junkie XL...