Timeless

by

Goldie

Edit

Look no further, lads and lassies, this is the album that defined "jungle," that unsteady skittery mix of breakbeats and deep dubby base; rhythm, but no distinct rules for it. That's jungle. No mainstream artist has ever produced anything like "Timeless." The title (and first) track consists of three parts: "Inner City Life," "Jah," and "Pressure." Twenty minutes long, but it's instantly accessible. Probably one of the only jungle /drum 'n bass tracks where the instrumental part is actually more interesting than the vocal (All of the other tracks follow suit, particularly "A Sense of Rage"). No other MAINSTREAM jungle artist can do this! C'mon, we're all grown up enough here to admit that the only interesting tracks on Roni Size's "New Forms" were the ones with vocals!

A brief history on the man himself...Goldie discovered breakbeats at London's Rage nightclub with his then girlfriend Kemistry and her DJ-ing partner Storm. Rage utilised reggae soundsystems and DJs like Grooverider to push breakbeats to new heights. After exposure to this, Goldie created "Timeless" in 1995 (if I may correct the previous reviewer), and formed the Metalheadz label, now one of the premier labels in Jungle and Drum 'n Bass. Metalheadz is now also a club in London where Goldie is king and top-notch jungle can be heard every week. LTJ Bukem, Alex Reece, Roni Size....nothing these guys have produced can touch "Timeless"...well, because it truly is.

I can't play this album on my CD player any more, i fall asleep whenever it comes on. It's not that "Timeless" is soothing me and relaxing me, just boring me. Goldie really gives jungle a bad name as the new age for the 90's. This is the kind of album that rock critics like because they can understand it. "Oh look this is new and different, yet i can follow it enough, i'd better put it on my best of list." Ugh. Just about any other drum and bass album you can come across is better, including his followup "Saturnzreturn," which keeps the blandness down to half of the album.