In 2009 came the debut album from the drum & Bass and Dubstep musician Sub Focus. Guidford-raised, he first made an impact in 2003, and has continued to make an impression on the Drum & bass world in particular with his own material, and also remixes of other popular artists in the style and other closely-associated ones, but once he made a mainstream impact in 2008, it was decided that he should compile a proper album of his works for the first time, as we get here.
1. “Let The Story Begin”
The album begins well with a powerful track that livens you up from the beginning, as you tend to expect of an album in such a genre and so after some time spend building things up with some dark sound effects, it dramatically breaks down in a harsh way and leads you right into what the general sounds of the album will be like from that point onwards. The tunes goes hard and I felt that there couldn’t be a better opener for it.
As things advance we see that we get more impressive music coming out of this album, and in this track specifically we get a chance to feel more powerful material that pushes you right into the mix of things and the sort of direction you need to be ready for in preparation for the rest of the album. It features sound effects that take you back to The Neptunes’ 1998-2001 production as a nice added touch.
**Four Stars*
3. “Follow The Light”
I felt as though
a big lift came of the thing as this one comes into action and we find that we have Sub Focus dropping down the intensity a little in order to come out with a little Liquid Funk-styled Drum & Bass. It is extremely soothing, and as long as you engage yourself with it, then you will feel the same towards it as it really doesn’t have any flaws in it when you consider the aims of doing such a track.
After building up the momentum, I can’t say that this track did anything other than completely lose this all again as we find that here we get a joint that has him staying along similar lines to the last one, but doing it in a way that makes it extremely passive and rather uninviting and so generally it is one that is easily forgotten and one that I feel only appeal to those who enjoy the watered-down Breakbeat-based tunes.
Although not quite as bad as the last one on the album, this is a track that doesn’t particularly do that much for the record as we find that we get another tune that doesn’t really need you to get into the mix of thing. It’s a bit of a sham that it comes across this way as we get so much occurring within it with the beats frequently switched-up, but really it didn’t do a lot in this case for the album at all.
**Three Stars**
6. “Rock It”
Although I see this as nothing more than an updated version of Pendulum’s “Slam” I have to say that this single from Sub Focus is a pretty big one from him and one that did well to raise the artist’s profile as we get a tune that has the power to connect with a wide audience – beyond the standard Drum & Bass heads that are guaranteed to find some connection with it regardless s it has such Pendulum-like qualities to it.
**Four Stars**
7. “Move Higher”
Using the classic James Brown-produced, Lyn Collins “Think (About It)” break, here we get a track that adds to the variety that we get from this album as we move into a completely new end of Electronica here as he takes on a little Fidget House and does extremely well at it in an attempt to distance himself from the pure Drum & Bass and drag in some grungy and immersive House unlike anything else heard yet (in a development on the way to Dubstep that will have a larger prominence later on).
**Five Stars**
8. “Vaporize”
Here we have a track that doesn’t yet get back to the typical Drum & Bass material as he continues to experiment within Electronica to find out just how far things can be taken. I have to say however that what came of this one was really not happening at all. It just sounds a mess and really takes away from the kind of thing that was heard prior to it as he undermines the hardcore elements of the last one for something that just sounds confused.
**One Star**
9. “Splash”
I felt as though he was able to rescue himself with this one as we get a track that turns things back towards Drum & bass and he makes a point of drilling through a joint that is going to excite hugely for the fact that it is all dance floor-directed and so is able to quickly shift away from the confusing things that he may have supplied elsewhere on the album for a brief escape of powerful raving material.
**Five Stars**
10. “Could This Be Real”
The mood changes as this one comes into effect and you see that there is a distinctive change in the way that he goes about producing the thing where we get him going for a little something that fools you with a rather naive-sounding House track, that breaks down into a dirty Dubstep joint that proves, through its rawness that he is really able to take things far when he gets himself into that kind of mode.
**Five Stars**
11. “Triple X”
The beats roll on this one and add a new dimension to an album that has already proven itself to be filled completely with variety, and I felt that this was another turn that I could embrace as it seems to lead on quite nicely from where we heard it all on other tracks that led up to it. However you do see that there’s yet more experimentation coming through here with a mix of the House and Drum and Bass being the most prominent features to it.
This was a 2008 single from the producer and one that I felt did a lot for him and was seen to do so with an approach to things that seemed to be fairly original, but played on a lot of styles that already and a prominence within the field that he has chosen to go for with his music. There’s a lot to like about what you get from this one, but at times it does seem to be a bit too intense to be really felt.
**Four Stars**
13. “Coming Closer”
The album ends on a track that has him moving back towards the Dubstep end of things. I felt that for a track of its type, it wasn’t really competing all that much and so would be likely not to do much as a track in the underground, but as an Entry-Level Dubstep track for those who only really get something from the mainstream end, it is nice. It closes the record off well and seems to be quite fitting.
**Four Stars**
This is a strong debut album from the artist and one that offers a lot of diversity as you see that he goes into quite a few different sub-genres within Drum and Bass as well as directions when it comes to more general Electronica styles. A couple of tunes hold it back quite a bit, and undermine the power of others, but I feel that on the whole it is one worth looking out for.
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