Accelerator - Future Sound Of London

Advantages: Totally compelling, excellent chill out album, total madness
Disadvantages: It's hard to get a grip on it, can be pretentious

...Lifeforms - What can you say? This album is the most gloriously self indulgent, pretentious and yet highly listenable hour and a half you can spend in your life. You could say that Lifeforms is the logical conclusion to ambient music, formless alien sound that manages to never get dull despite the fact that you rarely get any kind of loop or melody to lock onto for more than about 30 seconds. The Future Sound of London started off as a rave outfit in the late 80's and produced the classic acid track 'stakker humanoid' Next they turned their attentions to dub and general sound manipulation to create the dub monster, 'Papua New Guinea' and the 'accelerator' album before giving birth to the sprawling monster that is 'Lifeforms'. This album consists of 2 cd's of seemingly random electronic sounds that have been individually crafted... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Bass, dread and fear
Disadvantages: None

...The landscape of London has had its fair share of bards, poets and punks. The city has been eulogised and damned by musicians as varied as The Clash, The Kinks, Patrick Wolf and even those arch Mancunians The Smiths. To that list you can now add the name of Burial. The south London dubstep producer has released a collection of songs that has the city's dirty DNA etched into its grooves. The anonymous back bedroom genius has followed his ground breaking debut with a huge leap forward. Untrue is not the streaked neon and glitter bomb buzz of the West End in the early hours. Nor is it the melancholy romantic sweep of city possibilities so beloved of outsiders. No, Burial has soundtracked the London night out beyond tube lines, the shadowy hinterlands of South London Boroughs. The stuttered shops, graffitied underpasses, the smashed bus... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great collaboration, rare recordings, rare footage
Disadvantages: Maybe not your thang

...World’s End and the supermarket there. With something of a softer sound, the song is a reverie of mendacity as dreams of fame are blurred by the daily drag of shopping and the daily grind. In an era of high unemployment and general social decay, that mendacity was fertile ground for many bands lyrically and it’s that boredom in general that gave rise to bands like The Clash. One of the things that hit you about the time is how so many songs can sound upbeat and yet lyrically concentrate on the pessimistic side of life. “Koka Kola” and “Lovers Rock” both lament for the future of forthcoming pop with a nod to drugs never too far away from “Koka Kola”. Stagger Lee was a 19th century hustler shot dead in an argument over a hat in St Louis. Lamented in “Wrong ‘Em Boyo”, The Clash expose their influence to Ska and it’s that London gangster type... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful