Tracks
1. Railing
2. Brown Paper Bag
3. New Forms
4. Lets Get It On
5. Digital
6. Matter Of Fact
7. Mad Cat
8. Heroes
9. Share The Fall
10. Wathcing Windows
11. Beatbox
12. Morse Code
13. Deestination
Performer Notes
- Personnel includes: Roni Size, DJ Krust, DJ Die, Suv, Onallee, Bahamadia.
- Personnel: Onallee (vocals); Tyrell ? (guitar); Steve Graham (acoustic guitar); Adrian Place (saxophone); Clive Deamer (drums).
- Audio Mixers: DJ Suv; Roni Size.
- Photographer: Vikki Jackman.
- Unknown Contributor Role: Bahamadia .
- Arranger: DJ Tobs.
- By far the funkiest of the numerous high-profile drum 'n' bass albums released in 1997, NEW FORMS, by Bristol, UK DJ Roni Size and his crew Reprazent, is one of the few that sounds as if it has a chance to appeal to the uninitiated. The basic drum 'n' bass design--high-speed breakbeats, minimal melodic underpinning, diva vocals--remains. Size and his partners apply the blueprint to song forms instead of soundscape/groove collages, and they don't chintz on textures, infusing the digital whole with numerous analog sounds.
- Even the vocals stand apart from that of most club-ready albums. Two superb raps hint at the possibility of a hip-hop/d'n'b alliance that would serve both musics: MC Dynamite's crunching opener "Railing" and Bahamadia's work on the title track harken back to the days when rappers could move the dance-floor with a rhythm other than the funky mid-tempo. And even the instrumental workouts, like the mesmerizing "Brown Paper Bag," which rotates on samples of a stand-up bass and an acoustic guitar, have the sort of hooks and grooves that just aren't found on most electronic music platters. NEW FORMS is an album that remarkably lives up to its bold title.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.82) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."
Rolling Stone (11/27/97, p.107) - 3.5 Stars (out of 5) - "...drum-and-bass that employs live instruments and shoots straight down the middle....Size and Reprazent make the best case yet for drum-and-bass as the ultimate end-of-the-century urban-soul music."
Spin (9/99, p.138) - Ranked #38 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
Spin (1/98, p.87) - Ranked #13 on Spin's list of the "Top 20 Albums Of The Year."
Spin (12/97, p.153) - 8 (out of 10) - "...It's this year's consensus electronica album....Reprazent understand that the real `jazz thing' going on in drum'n'bass....resides in the rhythm section--the relationship between hyper-syncopated breakbeats and the roaming, ruminative, but always visceral bass..."
Entertainment Weekly (10/31/97, p.109) - "Like Soul II Soul, Bristol, England-bred Size and his group, Reprazent, create a funked-up soundscape of jazzy riffs, horns, wistful vocals, spacey bursts and pops, and MC toasting..." - Rating: A
Q (1/98, p.114) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997."
Alternative Press (5/02, p.104) - Included in AP's '10 Essential Pioneering Electronic Albums'.
Vibe (12/97-1/98, p.180) - "...The Bristol-based Roni Size and the Reprazent posse...audibly smash all preconceptions of drum'n'bass's being inaccessible....Roni Size and Reprazent have created new forms to love, cherish, and behold."
Melody Maker (12/20-27/97, pp.66-67) - Ranked #7 on Melody Maker's list of 1997's "Albums Of The Year."
Melody Maker (6/14/97, p.50) - "...contains more vision...imagination in the first few minutes of it's opening track than 99 percent of any album, from any genre so far this year...the finest drum n'bass album of all time....it is to the Nineties what "Sgt. Pepper" was to the Sixties; a record of unbridaled passion."
Village Voice (2/24/98) - Ranked #15 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
NME (Magazine) (12/20-27/97, pp.78-79) - Ranked #28 in NME's 1997 Critics' Poll.
