Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man

Sixtoo | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 18, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ninja Tune
• ASIN: B000UNYPMQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,709 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

When the dog days of summer are nearing a close, Montrealer Sixtoo will be dropping his latest masterpiece, Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man, onto society. For this new record, Sixtoo has delved further into the solo electronics realm. Surrounded by a stack of machines in his studio space, he set out to make a record compiled from live sets performed in various places at various times to stitch them together as a tape-edit record. Along the way these tracks evolved into entirely new compositions, melted down to their basic elements and refined into what we now know as Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man. The results are mindblowing. Sixtoo s signature drum machine fury is combined with dark melodic electronics to create film-noir style paranoia pieced together into one suite with many different movements. It sounds as you would expect: aggressive, deep, complex, spatial, and more importantly, tough as nails. Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man is a reflective look forward for Sixtoo...a beatscape that may require a warm-up and a massage before listening. Truly a headnodding affair of the highest order.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trip Bop, October 30, 2008

By 

IRate - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man (Audio CD)

High grade break-beat succeeds with keen, clean production and (mostly) memorable and creatively juxtaposed sampling. Some of the more scientifically-minded IDM fanboys may reject the more accessible hip-hop vibe we find here, but this album is impressively layered enough in analysis, even if slightly underdone on the whole, for that to be a mistake.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man, January 5, 2008

By 

Mitchell H. Williams (Phoenix, AZ. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man (Audio CD)

40 minutes of the sickest beats I have ever heard! I can listen to this album over and over again and not get sick of it. You can break or make love to it, but you can't go wrong with a member of the 1200 hobo's!

4.0 out of 5 stars Sixtoo Review, April 19, 2010

By 

Molly Music - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man (Audio CD)

I came across this album on iTunes after searching for artists and albums similar to DJ Spooky. After listening to all 13 parts, and reading up online about the history and musical background of the DJ and musical producer Sixtoo, I really have a developed a genuine appreciation for the cool, Canadian hip hop feel and sound of this album. The track last consists of songs that are all named "Jackals and the Vipers in Envy of Man", but can be distinguished by the Parts 1-13 listed next to each track. The songs rang from 0:40 seconds to nearly six minutes and are all a different assimilation of sampling, computer sounds, random beats and live musical instruments. It is a very random assortment of sounds, but after you start listening to them for a while, you can start feeling the beats. Your mind can really start to wander when listening to Sixtoo's "Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man" and I think that the collaboration of totally random sounds makes the album all the more interesting. Two of my favorite tracks is Part 1, which sounds a little bit like the background of a popular Macy Gray song, and Part 13, which is a pretty slow song that gradually starts to pick up and really get a good beat going, which I really like to listen to. I noticed that some of the songs sounded like computerized animal sounds, and you could also hear a hint of foreign sounds like in Part 4 which sounds like someone is trying to get a genie to magically swoop out of a bottle. In class, I feel like we have talked about the samples that were heard in this song, and I remember listening to a song even in section that had these same types of sounds. Aside from class, I have not listened to really anything like this and I consider Sixtoo a very original and spontaneous DJ. Another aspect of the album "Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man" that I found interesting was the lack of really any real human presence. There were no lyrics, and I felt like the music really had to tell the story as opposed to someone singing or rapping lyrics, which tell a story. The originality of the sounds made it possible for there to be no lyrics, yet for a really compelling story to be told through just plain music.

All in all, I thought that the music of Sixtoo in this album was very intriguing and moving, even though it was full of randomness. There is more to music than lyrics, and Sixtoo's DJ capabilities really show this in this album. Though some may think this album is confusing or repetitive, if you really start to listen to the sounds come together throughout all 13 parts, I think that you will really be surprised with what you think of it in the end. Overall, I give this album a 4.5 out of 5 stars and will definitely start listening to the music creations of Sixtoo more often.