Customer Reviews

Quick & Dead

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

 

 

Certainly, this is a great album; in the end, the best that it could do... setting aside that it is a heck of a work unto itself, would be to introduce to a wider audience the strange works of Scanner, who is.... an artist of... uncommon nature....

The bulk of people reading this review, I am assuming, are fans of DJ Spooky: the works of Scanner are just not known. Fans of Spooky shouldn't be disappointed; although this is no where near as accessible as the 'Riddim Warfare' album (which, although pretty artistic... could be listened to by a 'major' audience-- Pharoh Monch, Killah Priest and Kool Keith were all on it...) it is as accesible as the 'Freight Elevator Quartet' album, and, probably, shares the title with it of his most important and brilliant work (though 'Viral Sonata', released as Paul Miller... remains his furthest artistic reach). This is a listenable version of his 'illbent' creation: world-sounds mixed with scratching, noise, and minimalist beats... overwrought with Scanner's work.... who does similar things, adding in captured cell-phone conversations....

This album also can be liked straight off the bat-- it doesn't take four or five listens like some of Spooky's other stuff-- in this way, it's probably more like Scanner's canon, which, although somewhat weird, doesn't require years to get into. I highly recommend this album both to fans of traditional drum n' bass and to fans of more experimental stuff....

well, when i first listened to this album in it's entirety i must say the first thought that popped into my head was, "man, what a waste of time, money, and talent". thankfully i stopped writing things off so quickly and gave this album another chance and boy was i wrong. this is one softly tough piece of work here. i would recommend this album to people who like experimental music. the whole idea of this album was to blend two talents and i think it worked out quite well. thanks for the time. peace to all.

This is Dj Spooky's (aka Paul D. Miller) only joint effort with Scanner (aka Robin Rimbaud). The styles on this disk range widely as they do with the individual albums by these artists. The style is generally "illbient" (meaning a diverse agglomeration of drum'n'bass, ambient and dub).

These are two extremely innovative and talented artists who clearly had no conflict of artistic interests on this collaboration. The only negative aspect of this album is the fact that it is less than 40 minutes in length.

Nevertheless - a must for any serious spooky or scanner fan.

Do yourself a favor and pick up DJ Spooky's "Confessions of a Dead Dreamer" or "Celestial Mechanix"...both albums are infinitely better and more condusive to repeated listening.

Unfortunately, the Scanner vs. DJ Spooky effort comes off like a trippy new age remix of a Yanni album (minus the overblown choral stuff). There's a paucity of backbeats in this album, as the artists favor a more "etheral" feel with only infrequent jarring mix inclusions. If you want relatively modern trippy wandering noise, then get the album. If you're wanting a little bit more in the way of track structure and backbeats, then look elsewhere.

BTW - trippy noise doesn't get any better than Can's "Tago Mago" tracks 5 and 6 or a late 70s Eno/Fripp album.

JB

Freaking righteous... Buy this CD, no question. I now need to find more of Scanner's stuff. I like what he and That Subliminal Kid have done here. Very minimal beats, noises, freakishness. Parts are almost reminiscent of some of Future Sound of London's better stuff, but not quite as "produced." This makes it all the better, in my opinion.

I love this CD...it's haunting, but so dark that it brings me down. I find myself relistening frequently.