Timeless - Goldie

...London Records. The album was timeless - sorry - "Timeless" and featured very heavy drum rhythms, sparkling production work, and a wide range of influences and tempos for the tracks. Guitars and other "proper" instruments being used liberally & vocals courtesy of Diane Charlemagne, a silky voiced associate showed this could be a mature style of music, not just for 16 year olds with a GlaxoSmithkline level of chemical content, ...
...The album was co-produced by one Rob Playford, who aficionados of the scene will recognise as the boss of the Moving Shadow record label, another great stable that has been turning out some of the most advanced and innovative music in this genre for well over a decade. Some people think that the greatness of the album was more down to Playford himself than Goldie, though this is debatable. Certainly it did no harm to have Playford's hand on the tiller. ... more

Inner City life/Jah/Pressure - Saint Angel - State Of Mind - This Is A Bad - Sea Of Tears - Jah The Seventh Seal - Sense Of Rage - (Sensual V. I. P. Mix) - Still Life - Angel - Adrift - Kemistry - You And Me

Here's a bit of Biography first

Originally a Graffiti writer from Walsall - of all places, Goldie started off life in a children's home and during his teenage years diverted some of his energy into Graffiti art, becoming one of the UK's leading artists. He says about this period: "Doing graffiti art made me learn how to make something out of nothing, and it got me involved in the music scene" . Examples of his work in this area can be seen on the album's sleeve. If you think Graffiti is vandalism rather than art you may find you opinion challenged by the excelle

Later he lived in the South Bronx, starring in the movie "Bombing" with one of Hip-Hop's pioneers, the now legendary Mr Africa Bambaata - the Brooklyn Zoo collective's top man. (Originally a street gang, the Brooklyn Zoo were taken away from gun culture towards music and art by their leader - they organised block parties, and real life battles between neighbourhoods were transformed into rap or breakdancing "showdown" style battles, using words or dance moves instead of guns, to serve the opposition, instead of shoot them. It's a shame that later gangs unlearned this valuable lesson, and later rap music lost the positivity of the early years.)

The next few years divided between Miami, where Goldie's distinctive dental work was applied (see photo) and London, where the emergence of the UK's underground party scene, acid house and so on was mutating into something quite different at the now legendary "Rage" club in London. Goldie quickly latched on to this scene, and made it his own. Perhaps the fashioning of the new fast breakbeat "Hardcore" music into a darker sound had something to do with the times - as recession, unemployment and other factors may have influenced the sound. Breakbeat music typically takes a breakdown - the part where melody and harmony are stripped down and the rhythm section- bass and drums take over. (For example; "Funky drummer" by James Brown has often been used in this way) The "break" is then put into a repeating loop, after which it is sped up and combined with other sound effects to create a new feel entirely, a hypnotic and comlex rhythm that has some precedents in other world sounds such as African percussion and Brazilian Samba rhythms.

With the release of a really crazy sounding tune called "Terminator" that speeds up and slows down and generally sounds like it was created by an angry schizophrenic with an Atari ST, the Metalheadz label was born. But why the funny name? As Goldie himself puts it:

"Metalheadz started through Grooverider (another DJ from around the same period), I stole that from him. You know acetates right? The reason why the design came about was I'd always go the cage at Rage look at what was going on and I'd see a tune and it would be an acetate."

After the early stuff more releases followed and on the strength of sales from the Metalheadz catalogue Goldie was signed to produce an album for a major label; London Records. The album was timeless - sorry - "Timeless" and featured very heavy drum rhythms, sparkling production work, and a wide range of influences and tempos for the tracks. Guitars and other "proper" instruments being used liberally & vocals courtesy of Diane Charlemagne, a silky voiced associate showed this could be a mature style of music, not just for 16 year olds with a GlaxoSmithkline level of chemical content, covered head-to-toe in vicks vaporub and Burberry.

The album was co-produced by one Rob Playford, who aficionados of the scene will recognise as the boss of the Moving Shadow record label, another great stable that has been turning out some of the most advanced and innovative music in this genre for well over a decade. Some people think that the greatness of the album was more down to Playford himself than Goldie, though this is debatable. Certainly it did no harm to have Playford's hand on the tiller.

Here's a quick breakdown of what a few of my favourite tunes on "Timeless" sound like:

Inner City Life
The album kicks off with this - it's a bit of an epic, split into three sub sections: Life, Pressure, and Jah. Beginning with whirling atmospherics and haunting vocals that are evocative and tinged with sadness it soon leads into a second section that strips away much of the melodies and focuses on drums and bass stabs to create momentum for the track. It uses a technique for slicing up drum patterns and changing them whilst keeping true to their original structure somehow. It's hard to write about this, but that's the best I can do! The final section pulls all elements together fusing atmospherics, rhythm, bass and vocals to fantastic effect.

Saint Angel
Is nutty! Its really quick and has early-rave style synth stabs that pan back and forth between the speakers. There is a deep male vocal used sparingly over the track. This tune provides a punch to bring the listener back to earth after the epic "Inner city life". A warm set of atmospherics and an evolving bassline later on provide depth. Its probably my favourite off the album, and I'd say that its the one I like the best because it sums up how I felt about the music I heard going raving as a kid; its claustrophobic, hectic and very urgent.

State of mind
A lazy, bouncing bassline and slow tempo changes the mood, and this is the first proper "song" on the record. The snare drums on this tune switch at points and play backward, and you get a feeling of shifting within the music. It's intelligently done.
Jazzy, soulful music to chill out to, it still has something of an epic quality to it, and although perhaps to some the lyrics may be a bit off or cheesy I quite like them. They fit well with the music, at least.

Sea of Tears.

Really pretty vocals, sounds of seagulls and the ocean. Its another long piece of music but is not heavy, and doesn't seem to be overdoing it at all. Its a sad song, but I mean that in the beautiful sense of sad, rather than the sad sense - if ya get me?!

These are really just snapshots of a few of the tunes on the album. I don't want to test your patience with a description of every track. I'll bore you with my opinion on the album in general instead!

In my opinion, Goldie gets a lot of grief from the media and the music scene in general, some of it deserved. However with this album he really has done very well. Its rare in dance music to find an "album" in the traditional sense. What I mean by this is that often with a really good album it becomes more than the sum of its parts.

You know how when you listen to The Beatles "Abbey Road..." there is a distinct mood that lurks somewhere throughout the album and surfaces intermittently through the tracks - giving a cohesive and unified sound to the album as a whole? Thats what I'm on about. Please don't think I am comparing the two, I'm not - just attempting to draw a parallel. On the whole I'd say that everyone, young and old, Dance music crazy or not, should have a listen to this record, it may even change the way you feel about a style of music that is often dismissed as "noise".

Thanks for reading and rating, Berg.

 

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