Customer Reviews

Substances

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

 

 

This album is so nice. It's a fantastic, mellow, and beautiful set of songs that combine jazzy and trip hoppy music into some cool stuff. If you like Portishead, Massive Attack, Hooverphonic, etc. you will go nuts for this!

I found this CD when I was in England in the spring of 97. I never heard of DJ Cam, but I was into Shadow & Krush and thought I'd take a chance. Good move. Although this CD was not at the same level as "Entroducing," "Meiso," or "Milight," it was still a solid effort and showed Cam's production abilities. I remember poping in this disc while riding in my group's van and driving to Glostenbury. The beats on this disc were a mash-up of Hip-Hop and electronica, making a bridge between the two styles and pulling an audience from both groups.

I'm glad I got the CD when I did; because I honestly have never seen a copy of it again. Worth the 10 pounds I paid for it and this may about 6 years late, but to the guy that wanted to know what he sampled on the track "Twilight Zone." THE SCORE FROM INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE.

The growing world of abstract hiphop is producing some great material, but to qualify as hip hop, it must be hiphop, and that means it has to be real. Dj Cam's "Substances" seems to forget that at times, verging more towards ambient and triphop. While the fusion of arabic music,hiphop instrumentals and jazz produces some fresh results (check out "lost kingdom")underground hiphop headz might find the whole album too detached from the raw beats and street philosophy they're used to.

Being a diehard Cam fan after hearing "DJ-Kicks", "Mad Blunted Jazz", and "The Beat Assassinated", I thought that the man could do no wrong and decided to buy every album he put out. Needless to say, I was more than a bit disappointed with "Substances", which has some high points (like "meera" and "lost kingdom") but for the most part has one-too-many cliched and generic beats. On the whole it's just incohesive and forgettable, with none of the creative layering or interesting beats that he's known for. If you liked "Mad Blunted" and "Dj-Kicks", stick to those albums until Cam puts something new out...cuz you won't get much out of this one.

As good as Mad Blunted Jazz is, Substances is ten times better. It's one of my favorite downtempo albums ever -- and I don't make a claim like that lightly. From the first track, "Friends and Enemies," a slow and meditative, a perfect melding of jazz and hip-hop, you're in for a treat. "Meera," an exquisite track with dark and mournful vocals, conveys exactly what heartbreak is like, despite the language barrier; "Lost Kingdom" follows the same shadowy path. "Sound System Children" gives us some light breaks, while "Innervisions" throws us back headlong into the jazz, surrounded by harp and bass. "Angel Dust" is languorous, moody, and peaceful; "Twilight Zone" sounds like a death march through wintry Siberia that's interrupted by machine-gun fire. This album will never be far from my side. It's evocative, moving and intimate. It's a classic.

After displaying a different vibe with the live studio mix of K7's Dj Kicks, Cam revisits that Jazz Vault that was prominent on his "Mad Blunted Jazz" album. rase1bannon made mention in a review of Cam's "French Connection" that Cam is not as "groundbreaking" as Krush or Shadow. I would venture to say, that what makes Shadow "groundbreaking" is how he took the baseline from Metallica's "Orion" and used it in "The number song". Well if "Friends and Enemies", "Essences"(of any part), or "Hip Hop Pioneers" does nothing for you, then at least wonder how a guy from France watches "Interview with the Vampire" and takes the opening theme and makes it into one of the Hardest yet most beautiful tracks "Twilight Zone". Pretty "groundbreaking" really.

DJ Cam's effort on this was very mediocre. Although I must say I am highly impressed with artists such as Shadow and Krush. This guy just doesnt seem to click into anything. Not funky enough to be dancey, not trippy enough to be meditationally deep. It just sits in the middle as one of those definate back ground albums and I for one never expect music to be in the back ground so this will be heading stright back to the second hand shop I bought it from. Was worth seeing hes worth.

hi, is there anyone who knows what DJ cam contained the samples in TWILLIGHT ZONE? the orchestra on the dirty beat, please tell me