Droid - NYC D&B

Artist:

Droid

UPC:

706172009222

Description:

Droid: Jordan McLean (trumpet, French horn, electronics); Adam Butler (keyboards, synthesizer); Tim LeFebvre (bass); Amir Ziv (drums, metaliphone). Recorded at The Izzy Bar, New York, New York between March 1999 & February 2000. Recording information: Izzy Bar, NY (02/1999-02/2000). Illustrator: Andi Jones. Photographer: Eleonora Alberto. At its worst, drum`n`bass can dissolve into mood music of the worst kind -- an undifferentiated fabric of received beats and prefabricated synth textures designed more to produce a Pavlovian effect in the listener ("Hey, there`s that hip sound that I`m supposed to like") than to provide any real musical pleasure. But at its best, drum`n`bass can be a playground of advanced rhythmic and harmonic ideas, one that appeals equally to the hips and the head. With NYC D&B, the quartet known as Droid has managed to create some of the best drum`n`bass in several years, and (if the liner notes are to be believed) did so in a live, completely improvised manner to boot. The ten tracks on this album were recorded over a period of one year during Droid`s residency at the Izzy Bar in New York; since the band includes a trumpet player, keyboardist, bassist, and drummer, the sound is quite a bit more organic than you`d expect for this genre, and it also gets quite jazzy at times without ever lapsing into acid jazz tedium. "Poly Bell" works a spare funk bassline under stabs of muted trumpet and jungly drums, creating a final product that sounds like an update on Massacre`s classic sound; "Chronic Dub Mania" is a hyperkinetic jungle workout in which the frenetic drums and restrained bassline provide a base for alien synthesizer tones; and "Droid City" verges on rhythmic chaos but manages to keep the groove just barely in check, much the way surface tension keeps water from spilling over the edge of a glass even as it trembles in an arc just above the surface. This is a tremendously exhilarating album, one that fulfills the promise of a musical genre that all too frequently disappoints. ~ Rick Anderson

Track Listing:

DISC 1

1. Bytes
2. Adrenatone
3. Spooky Hell
4. Poly Hel
5. Chronic Dub Mania
6. In Balance
7. Floodlight Radiation
8. Alpha
9. Droid City
10. Droid Factory

Album Information

Release Date:

10/10/2000

Type:

Performer

Genre:

R&B

Subgenre:

Dance

Label:

Shadow

Producer:

Droid

Catalog Number:

92

Original Release Year:

2000

# of Discs:

2

Studio/Live:

Live

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

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