Roni Size Touching Down Fullcycle brought to you by Egg Boy In 1997, an emerging electronic genre known as jungle/drum and bass finally found a recognizable face in Roni Size. As Bob Marley had done with reggae and Nirvana with grunge, Roni Size reprazented a movement of like-minded DJ and fellow digital artists with the release of New Forms. The 2 hour opus caught the ear of many in the underground, culminating in earning them the Mercury Prize, the UK’s award for best new musical act. New Forms seamless blending of acoustic samples and electronic sounds, coupled with a unique rhymer in MC Dynamite, provided the music public with a true ‘new form’ of genre-blending work. So hard-hitting was New Forms that 2001’s release In The Mode had nowhere to go but down. The brilliant simplicity of NF was replaced by macho rapping, soul sister crooning, and a few too many guest stars (more Zack De La Rocha or Method Man, anyone?). Still capable of a blistering live show with an eight piece band, Roni Size, whose strength lies in production and soundscape, suddenly didn’t make much sense on record, trying too hard to do too much. Perhaps realizing this (check the album title), Size releases Touching Down, a momentum-filled, non-stop hour of original beats and bass. It’s completely instrumental and all Roni, which equals sheer aural delight. No one repeats with variation better. Individual songs are hard to disseminate, so well placed is each groove. Inevitably, Roni Size delivers in a way perhaps beyond his New Forms debut: this record isn’t just touching down, its THROWING down, with no outside textures or filler. Check the bobbling bassline on ‘Uncensored,’ with its backbeat wrap-around and frenetic percolating synths, or the far East tinges of ‘Vocoda Funk.’ This is dance music for the brain, and provides the kind of endorphin rush usually reserved for hi-impact aerobics or skydiving. Right the fuck on. Pros: Roni Size Cons: Only an hour long Useful for: workouts, long drives, cleaning Metric Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? Goldfrapp Black Cherry Fleetwood Mac Say You Will DJ Dara Breakbeat Science Exercise 01 The 88 Kind of Light The Kills Black Rooster EP The Libertines Up the Bracket Jettatura Squadra Fantasma Tone Ambient Metals The Streets Original Pirate Material Grand Buffet Cigarette Beach Roni Size Touching Down Rolling Stones 40 Licks Brendan Benson Lapalco Anticon Music for the Advancement of Hip-Hop copyright © 2000-2005 - www.stellargirl.com