• Voto:
Dopo il fenomenale "New Forms", era difficile ipotizzare che Roni Size avrebbe potuto fare il bis, realizzando un disco di uguale e pregevole fattura. Il DJ e producer di Bristol, invece, sorprende tutto e tutti pubblicando, due anni dopo il suo multipremiato esordio, "Ultra-Obscene" (Talkin' Loud, 1999), album frutto della collaborazione con la vocalist Leonie Laws ed il "collega" DJ Die, con i quali dà vita al collettivo Breakbeat Era.
Con il suo artwork bizzarro e ultraminimale, il progetto presenta, nelle sue quindici tracce, analogie e, soprattutto, differenze con il precedente "New Forms". Resta, sicuramente, la voglia di far muovere la testa e i sederini di fans e clubbers di mezzo mondo, ma al tempo stesso viene approfondita maggiormente l'anima "black" del genere Drum'n'Bass, attraverso l'ottima e quasi onnipresente voce di Leonie Laws e le ritmiche grezze e coinvolgenti create dai due DJ all'opera, in molti casi dei veri e propri inviti a nozze per il dotato breaker di turno. I toni bassi e distorti dell'iniziale "Past Life" (in realtà, caratteristica dell'intero lavoro) ci introducono degnamente all'interno del disco, "Rancid", con i suoi ritmi pesanti e frammentati, pone luce, per prima, sui vocalizzi della signorina Laws, la magnifica title-track è un vero e proprio inno alle danze, oltre ad un caleidoscopio sonoro di incredibile complessità, tra innesti acidi e "pitchati" di batteria, chitarre wawa dal retrogusto funk e quant'altro. Ci si potrebbe soffermare a descrivere minuziosamente ogni singola traccia, dalla profonda e delicata (tra virgolette) "Bullitproof" all'ipnotica "Time 4 Breaks", passando per la strumentale "Late Morning", con il suo bellissimo sample di chitarra, "Animal Machine", dominata da tempi lenti e dilatati che precedono di poco il tripudio di effetti elettronici del ritornello, per poi giungere agli echi e riverberi della splendida "Control Freak" e al variegato universo sonoro della conclusiva e martellante "Life Is My Friend", che pone fine a 74 minuti di musica prossimi alla perfezione.
Certo, in alcuni casi (pochissimi) il livello del tutto scende leggermente, ma in ogni caso "Ultra-Obscene", pur posizionandosi un mezzo gradino più in basso dell'epico "New Forms", resta un lavoro imprescindibile per comprendere a pieno l'universo D'n'B della passata decade, un disco intenso tutto da ballare e, perché no, da amare. Voto: 4,5
Elenco tracce testi e samples
02 Rancid (05:07)
On the left, to the right
Pressure gridlock eye on the prize
On my knees finally
The irony is you saying please
If you sleep too long the fires go out
You dare to dream and we have no doubt
One ahead one behind
It's physical no cold fish apply
Junk in your words don't show in your face I wait for your face to break
Vicious and clean edge like a razor hunting the lazerblade
Its free to the sweet one the short and the brief one silence is dangerous
Show me illusion in all the confusion peculiar database
Open up what am I ?
It's all in the book babe line after line
Easily voice on the line soothe it to sooth you
Ice down my spine
03 Ultra-Obscene (05:03)
I see you can you see I
Paper thin made of neon
Weekend come I gotta see you
Take your time and consider
Don't be down I'll make you better
Got the back to the letter
meet me down by the river
Lay me down and pull the trigger
Ultra obscene - ah -
You and me - ah -
Skin on skin - ah -
Uh, uh, uh
Ultra obscene
04 Bullitproof (04:32)
Electrify me you my half baked youth I memorise your face so I won't forget you Dancing demons in the firelight yes it's true Remind me of the night I first met you Criticise me for my mis-spent youth No thrill no lie more crazy than the truth You give me precious things I throw them all away And now you free my breath your scared what I might say Speak no lie, I tell the truth Save my breath you break the rules Time will tell yeah who is who Side by side we're bullitproof
08 Anti-Everything (05:26)
My life home life,
Drought in the night life,
Half light twilight,
My life is no life.
Change come on and do it,
Shame your'e only fooling,
I don't find you,
In the least amusing.
Blood throb deadline,
Can't think can't whine,
Burn ya baby all night,
Don't forget to do it.
Superskunk affected
Mind disease believe
Taste it I can feel it
Anti everything
Whack up the smile to factor ten
It's a dodgy situation
Flagship indicator
Maybe I'll be ready
I'm just an honest nonsense breaker
I ain't worked it out yet
Steal the thorn and bin the nose
I was raised a double agent
Hardwire isolator
See through invitation.
09 Animal Machine (03:03)
Down and round is on my mind
Sleep forever I got time
Feel my feelings on her wear
You look nervous I don't care
All you got I rich inside
Free to do what's in my mind
Stlye to suit you make it clear
4am are you still here
Don't believe me when I say
Don't be scared don't run away
I coil around you no escape
Run on home it's getting late
With the tightly break on things
Bite the flesh that feeds you please
With my style I go between
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine
Don't believe me when I say
Don't be scared don't run away
I coil around you no escape
Run on home it's getting late
All you got I rich inside
Free to do what's in my mind
Stlye to suit you make it clear
4am are you still here
You ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine
No point in lying
My mind is playing
Everytime I close my eyes I see you
No way to hide it, no way to say it
It's in the smallest things that you do
I can't believe my mind is playing
My mind is playing these trips like this
Can feel my eyes is straying
I need a heat I feel to be I'm with you
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine and you ain't safe with me
I'm a walking Animal Machine
12 Control Freak (05:44)
Sleaze on the slide
Control freak freaking out on the dance floor
Deep inside
Sleaze on the slide
Control freak freaking out on the dance floor
Deep inside skin decide
I feel alive no love indecision
In the summer time
Sleaze on the slide
Control freak freaking out on the dance floor
Deep inside time to time
I symapthise no rhyme need to reason in the summer time
Carico i commenti... con calma
