Tough Guys Don't Dance - High Contrast

“Tough Guys Don’t Dance” came as the third album from the Welsh Drum & Bass producer High Contrast. The 2007 one came as a breakthrough record for him as he finally had the ability to take his sound beyond the typical fan base and explore it further with his soulful style.

1. “If We Ever”

You have him kicking off the album in the best way possible with what was the biggest single from the album. It has him showing the power ...
...centred around one of the most empowering breaks you find in the D&B world,. It was a club banger of its time, and sets things up nicely for the future.

**Five Stars**

2. “Everything’s Different”

As it moves on a little, you see that You find that the local Jazz singer Ian Shaw joins him by assisting on the vocals to give the music that little extra something has he drops one which takes you through a bit of ... more

“Tough Guys Don’t Dance” came as the third album from the Welsh Drum & Bass producer High Contrast. The 2007 one came as a breakthrough record for him as he finally had the ability to take his sound beyond the typical fan base and explore it further with his soulful style.

1. “If We Ever”

You have him kicking off the album in the best way possible with what was the biggest single from the album. It has him showing the power of his beats with one which has the whole thing centred around one of the most empowering breaks you find in the D&B world,. It was a club banger of its time, and sets things up nicely for the future.

**Five Stars**

2. “Everything’s Different”

As it moves on a little, you see that You find that the local Jazz singer Ian Shaw joins him by assisting on the vocals to give the music that little extra something has he drops one which takes you through a bit of a journey whilst using some slapping breaks to really get you moving with one which brings up the mood significantly.

**Five Stars**

3. “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”

Sampling the classic Psychedelic Iron Butterfly song of the same name, you get one which re-plays the main riff in a speedier pace for an effect which you don’t get matched at any other stage in the album. I saw it as one of the best in the whole of the album and I can’t see how you couldn’t see it any other way.

**Five Stars**

4. “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”
This is a real stand-out tune which you get from the album and one you can’t miss as it is done in a way you don’t get from any of the others as for once he chooses to bring in clear influence from outside the immediately-associated genres with a Hip Hop style coming through at first before it takes on a heavy breakdown as more classic music (stated in the title) is sampled.

**Five Stars**

5. “Forever & A Day”

This is a hard-hitting track on the album and one which has High Contrast going in hard with his rather distinctive soulful D&B approach where he is seen to use the vocalist (J’Nay in this case) to their full potential in giving it a bit of a more emotive uplift. It is one which sits nicely in the album and has a clear purpose within it.

**Five Stars**

6. “Sleepless”

I felt that for this one, although I would say that it was able to maintain the high standards of the album, it still didn’t quite have what it needed to really get the listener going as it wasted quite a bit of time in its early, build-up stages and as theses come through at many times through its near 6-minute length, it seems to hold back the energy.

**Four Stars**

7. “Tread Softly”

In this one you find a track which appears to get him trying out things in a bit of a different way to what you find with others in that the breaks which you get from it appear to take on a trip format which seem to take in much more of a Jungle style than others. The bass hits hard here, in a much deeper way that pretty much all others, and it seemed fitting to have such a one here.

**Five Stars**

8. “Metamorphosis”

I felt that although I can’t say that I disliked this one at all, it is one which didn’t have as heavy material within it as you see that the thing is overhyped with its build up and the various stages it goes through with the speech snippets, and=s it breaks down to some pretty typical breaks at the end, but it is still a heavy one regardless of this.

**Four Stars**

9. “Pink Flamingos”

I have to say that this was a pretty unmemorable one on the album and I felt that this appeared to hold it back slightly in tha it didn’t really pull out the same sort of emotions as others. The synth you get from this is of a much more annoying, Pendulum style that what I tend to enjoy in my D&B, but the slapping percussion lightens this somewhat.

**Four Stars**

10. “Eternal Optimist”

I saw this as one on the album which does exactly what you expect it to do as from the title alone you know that you should expect something which is going to bring you up, and this is what you receive with the light synth and the lyrics which J’Nay drop to uplift and motivate you to show that you can pull out alternative emotions through this genre.

**Five Stars**

11. “Chances”

I have to say that it was one of the ones on here which didn’t really have the same impact as some of the others on the album did with it taking on beats which don’t really have as much of a punch behind them as they drop and I felt that it held t back somewhat, in spite of the fact that some more progressive techniques were used in it to show variety in it.

**Four Stars**

12. “Nobody Gets Out Alive”

In spite of its dampening title, I believe that this one appears to act in a similar way to what you get from “Eternal Optimist” in that much of it is build up upon the type of production which you would associate with the up-lifting material, and its nasty composition allows it to show a bit more depth than many others you get from the album.

**Four Stars**

13. “The Ghost Of Jungle Past”

As the album is brought to a close you find that with this one the Jungle elements of the music become clear as here you get one which has High Contrast taking you back to the nineties with the sort of breaks which you would associate with the height of Jungle popularity in the D&B world. It Is a hardcore tune, and serves it purpose.

**Five Stars**

There is not a single weak track on the album, indicating that if you are into you soulful-styled Drum & Bass, then this is the sort of thing for you and so if you enjoy what you get from another, such as Alix Perez, then you will certainly enjoy what you get from this too. It is hard-hitting throughout and you won’t stop moving through its duration.  

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