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Artist:
Dr. Octagon
Something must have flipped Kool Keith's wig like a mescaline pizza. I can think of no other way to explain the mutant birth of Dr. Octagonecologyst. Literally assuming another personality on this record, Dr. Octagon--Kool Keith on the mike, with Dan "The Automater" Nakamura producing--transmits unearthly rhymes like tractor beams to your cranium. Then he squirms around in there, grabs some Vaseline from your medicine cabinet, and does a little dance. The first time you listen to cuts like "Earth People" and "Blue Flowers," you might have to change the way you listen to hip-hop. The standards are the same--verse, chorus, verse, with plenty of nasty skits in the mid...
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List Price: £15.99
Our Price: £6.12
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Artist:
DJ Shadow
California's Josh Davis--aka DJ Shadow would have no easy ride in making The Private Press after his debut Endtroducing wreaked havoc in the dance and hip-hop communities. Constructed entirely around samples, yet defiantly and thrillingly original, it took searching for dusty breaks in old thrift stores to new levels. With its serious b-boy underpinnings and potently stark soundtrack feel, it heralded in a whole new era of instrumental hip-hop. A zillion copycats have landed on the bandwagon since, but Shadow has kept on top of his game, keeping his hand in with various collaborations (Blackalicious, Unkle, Cut Chemist and superlative 12s like "High Noon" an...
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List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £3.40
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Artist:
Herbaliser
Herbaliser masterminds Jake Wheery and Ollie Teeba consider Something Wicked This Way Comes to be the highlight of their career, and with good reason. The duo has been crafting a blend of jazz laced hip-hop and club grooves since they formed the ever changing and expanding Herbaliser collective in 1995. Now on their fourth album they've combined their formidable studio know-how with the live instrumentation utilised in their electrifying performances. Collaborators include their homemade horn section the Easy Access Orchestra, Iriscience of west coast underground supremoes Dilated Peoples, Phi Life Cypher and Wildflower the tough, tender newcomer from Harlesden ...
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £3.10
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Artist:
DJ Shadow
DJ Shadow, a.k.a. Josh Davis, could be credited with bringing newfound introspection to the gloating sounds of hip-hop. Condensed with urban oscillations and scatological beats, Endtroducing... shutters with eclectic samples and aural montages that reach beyond the constraints of hip-hop style. Enhancing the mix with fundamentals of rock, soul, funk, ambient, and jazz, the modern fusions fail to go unnoticed, even by the casual listener. While most of the tracks are compiled by layering samples from vinyl treasures found in used-record bins, the production quality of the mosaic is unmatched. Darkened melodies carry throughout the album with its eye on the end of th...
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List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £3.15
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Artist:
Amon Tobin
Supermodified is the stunning fourth album from Amon Tobin. Hard-edged tracks like "Four Ton Mantis" and "Saboteur" are juxtaposed against melodic downbeat excursions like "Slowly", "Marine Machines" and "Natureland". "Deo" fuses a Brazilian guitar sample with razor sharp break-beats that sound like Egberto Gismonti jamming with Squarepusher. "Precursor" (a collaboration with Montreal beatboxer Quadraceptor) merges off-the-wall scat rhythms with jazzy guitar riffs. "Golfer Vs Boxer" sounds like the bastard child of Innerzone Orchestra's "Bug In The Bassbin". Supermodified is an album where generic conventions get turned on their heads, as Latin, drum 'n' bas...
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £4.43
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Artist:
Herbaliser
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £4.33
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Artist:
Gorillaz
A collection of B Sides (Sorry, G Sides) from a band with only one album to their credit should be an exercise in lowest-common-denominator barrel-scraping. But Gorillaz' G Sides, as befits a band whose "live" performances take months of preparation, is an exercise in careful planning that actually manages to outstrip this near certainty. It's by no means a work of lost gems. "19-2000" features as a more uptempo mix, and "Clint Eastwood" reappears as the more chunky mix performed on the BRITs with Phi Life Cypher, and as a CD-ROM video. Other tracks, such as the closer "12D3" come across as 13 era Blur on autopilot. Unsurprisingly it's not hefty either, weig...
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List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £2.64
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Artist:
DJ Shadow
This set compiles much of DJ Shadow's pre-major label material in one convenient package in an attempt to foil bootleggers and bring new fans up-to-date in the curriculum. The results are naturally varied, but all point to a marvellous evolution of talent. The collection is kept together primarily by its propensity for jazzy beats and psychedelic loops. Shadow (né Josh Davis) moves through everything from old school funk ("In/Flux") to grungy 1960s-style guitar rave-ups ("High Noon"). The centrepiece of the set, however, is a four-part composition called "What Does Your Soul Look Like", which is likely to be the first ever entirely sample-driven rock opera. It's a brilli...
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List Price: £11.99
Our Price: £5.82
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Artist:
Amon Tobin
Released in the spring of 1997, Bricolage was Amon Tobin's debut album for Ninja Tune which followed audio excursions for the now-legendary London imprint Ninebar. While his work became increasingly cinematic, this earlier material has more of a sense of fidget about it--with Bricolage actually defined as "something constructed by using whatever comes to hand". Whether reigning in "Easy Muffins" crunching low-end through touches of woodwind or attempting to calm the double-speed beats of "Yasawa" with sun drenched, Hawaiian guitar--juxtaposition is the key. The raging drum and bass which slipped into this album offers the ultimate extreme--amphetamine-raddle...
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List Price: £6.99
Our Price: £1.05
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Artist:
Gorillaz
Spacemonkeyz Versus Gorillaz - Laika Come Home
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List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £3.08
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