Customer Reviews

New Forms

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This album blew me away. Damn, if you listen to it loud and let the whole album play out, you'll get the best listening experience possible for this album. New Forms plays out like a continuous drum & bass mixtape. The songs, with their rich basslines and pulsing percussion, draw influence from jazz, soul, and hip-hop. Add some smooth vocals and a guest spot by Bahamadia and you have one solid album.

I bought this when it came out and - despite the fact I liked many of the tracks - I felt everything was overlong, repetitive, boring and all the other things people say about this CD. However, I just put it on the other day and it's like my ears have finally caught up with these guys! This is an absolutely awesome CD!

I'm not sure how to describe the sound of "New Forms", except to just call it drum and bass. It's got the feel of live instrumentation even when everything is programmed, however the way the tracks are built comes straight out of the techno genre. Overall, the sound is very spare and all about "less is more".

If you're having trouble, start with tracks like "New Forms" and "Digital" which include some vocals and rap. These helped me "get it" and opened the door to the instrumental stuff. If you think you're just going to slap this on your player and enjoy, forget it. It demands time on your part and that your ears stretch a bit to really hear how the songs move and change.

Brilliant and essential.

Roni Size stakes a claim for being the top name in drum&bass with this Mercury Music Prize winning effort, also by chance a double CD set like the aforementioned's "Timeless". The sound is a different end of the genre though, utilising live instrumentation more, particularly the live bass, with the seminal "Brown Paper Bag" a good example.

This album deserves 5 stars, not 4. It is simply one of the best drum&bass (jungle) albums out there. New Forms was certainly one of the difinitive album in the history of the genre (along with Timeless by Goldie, and a few others). It served a major role in bringing American attention to the UK jungle scene, which has been quite big for a number of years now. It also helped jungle emerge as an art, be taken more seriously and not just thought of as dance/rave music. This is an extremely well-made album and it turned a lot of heads on to jungle. I couldn't believe the average rating for this album was 4 stars, so i felt it was my duty to write this review. If you want to get turned on to the new forms of music that have been emerging this is the pefect album to do so. Do yourself a favor and get this album!

By far the funkiest of the numerous high-profile drum 'n' bass albums released in 1997, NEW FORMS, by Bristol, UK DJ Roni Size and his crew Reprazent, is one of the few that sounds as if it has a chance to appeal to the uninitiated. The basic drum 'n' bass design--high-speed breakbeats, minimal melodic underpinning, diva vocals--remains. Size and his partners apply the blueprint to song forms instead of soundscape/groove collages, and they don't chintz on textures, infusing the digital whole with numerous analog sounds. Even the vocals stand apart from that of most club-ready albums. Two superb raps hint at the possibility of a hip-hop/d'n'b alliance that would serve both musics: MC Dynamite's crunching opener "Railing" and Bahamadia's work on the title track harken back to the days when rappers could move the dance-floor with a rhythm other than the funky mid-tempo. And even the instrumental workouts, like the mesmerizing "Brown Paper Bag," which rotates on samples of a stand-up bass and an acoustic guitar, have the sort of hooks and grooves that just aren't found on most electronic music platters. NEW FORMS is an album that remarkably lives up to its bold title.

This is a great album ignoring the somewhat pompous title. Jazz, blues, funk, drum n bass etc are hardly new. I agree with others that it is a little too repetetive and boring at times but hey what isnt these days. Those seeking a bit more jazz and fewer and slower beats might like to check out Bugge Wesseltoft and his equally pompously titled New Conception of Jazz which has real horns, guitars, a wider spread of tempos and is actually rather better than this apart from some iffy treated vocals (but then if it has to be called Drum N Bass to fit your personal lifestyle choice, keep the blinkers on)

One day in 1996 i was coming home from school and a buddy of mine put in this tape and told me to listen. My life was changed from that moment on. It turned out to be "New Forms," one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. This album is absolutely amazing and can turn anybody into a D'n'B fan. If you don't have it, you must buy it. It was recently awarded with No. 5 of the top 50 albums of all time in URB Magazine. Considering the vote was done strictly by Readers of the ever so amazing magazine, it must say something!

This was the first Drum'n'Bass (DnB) album I ever bought, back in 1997 or '98. It's been close to 7 years that I've owned this album and I have to say, there hasn't been a month that I haven't listened to it at least once. This was my introduction to the (usually) wonderful world of electronica. I have to say, there's nothing like it out there, believe me, I looked low and high. Most DnB artists fall into nice, neat, easy-to-predict categories, but not Roni. He pulls from all sources (some logical and some totally out of left field) to create all sorts of feelings. Thematically, the songs are linked, but each track is a pleasant surprise to the open-minded listener. Spread across two discs, New Forms is a blend of raw energy and intricate beats.

Just about all of the tracks showcase Roni's ability to take inspiration from jazz, hip-hop, and whatever else and create something totally new and totally beautiful. I know beautiful isn't a term typically associated with DnB, but there's something wonderfully intricate about Roni's music. At first listen, I was excited by the energy of tracks like Morse Code and Electriks (the bonus track), but as I grew, the album grew with me. I grew to favor the more intricate and pensive tracks, such as Change My Life, Let's Get It On and Ballet Dance.

There's something on this album that I think most people should be able to relate to, both on a primal and an intellectual level. For jazz lovers, hip hop fans and everything in between, this is a great gateway album into the world of electronica and particularly DnB. But don't be surprised if you find yourself coming back to this gem for years to come.

I hardly like Roni Size but this album is just great. I enjoy both discs; there is some meaningful searching and beat development that gets across during the listening of disc 1 and 2. I like that. The overall tone of jazzy, 'new', fresh 'forms' is a pure blend of style and focus. It is definately worthwhile to give this album a listen.

Here we are, Roni Size's debut album that changed the drum n bass world to this day. This album has highlights like the timeless "Brown Paper Bag", the minimal "New Forms", and the hyperactive jump-up "Let's Get It On". "Digital" weaves a solid synth line and bass through a fast paced drum beat. The problem is that these stellar tracks are followed by a less-fantastic second half. "Heros", in my mind, is vastly overplayed, and we have bad mixes of "Share The Fall" (the better mix is on the second disc) and "Watching Windows" (the Ed Rush and Optical mix brings this to shame). On the second disc, we are again greeted with excellent opening tracks. There's "Hi-Potent," an excellent song with acoustic guitar and a cool slappy bass line, and "Trust Me" and "Change My Life" surprisingly keep a high amount of your attention with switch-up precussion loops and well-timed vocal samples that hold water. Like I said earlier, there's the original version of "Share The Fall", which starts off nice and spacey before throwing down some chopped up and fuzzy vocals again from the tender voiced Onallee. From here, the cd gets VERY minimal and jazzy with "Down" and "Jazz" (which are BEGGING to be remixed, by the way) and shoots up to the chilled-out, atmospheric euphoria of "Hot Stuff" which has a truly monumental woodwind sample. It gets very trippy on the opulent "Ballet Dance" and closes with the snare-y jump-up drum n bass insanity of "Elektricks".

What we have here are two drum n bass cd's with definite jazz influence. The structure's and arrangements are excellent. Although you may have to press the "forward" button on your player to hear the best tracks, none of the tracks are un-listenable and all of them have a good atmosphere.