Track Listing

1. Railing
2. Brown Paper Bag
3. New Forms - Roni Size, Reprazent, Bahamadia
4. Let's Get It On
5. Digital
6. Matter Of Fact
7. Mad Cat
8. Heroes
9. Share The Fall
10. Watching Windows
11. Beatbox
12. Morse Code
13. Destination

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6841 in Music
• Released on: 2000-12-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Full Cycle's core members of Roni Size, Suv, Krust and Die spent six years sniping innovative twelves from their studios in Bristol before the majors finally started reaching for their chequebooks--Giles Peterson eventually clenching the deal for his well respected Talkin' Loud. A couple of singles and a slew of remixes followed before this album was released to critical acclaim. Switching between the minimal to the full, oppressive to the inviting, "New Forms" nods its head to the jazz experimentation of the sixties. At the same time, it retains a cutting edge feel, proof that the sound of Full Cycle is, without any doubt, one of the most advanced operating within drum and bass. "Share the Fall," captures the spirit of the whole album with harsh bass stabbing at clicked breaks and tumbling rolls, the trashily EQ'd vocal slicing apart a strung out midsection and hazy atmospheres before the beats solo out to stalk individual members of the roaring crowd. As at home in a club as it is in a car stereo or living room, "New Forms" has proved to be a seminal album that, though uniquely drum and bass, aspires to something much larger.--Kingsley Marshall

CD Description
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 analogue sounds.
Even thevocals stand apart from that of most club-ready albums. Twosuperb 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 mesmerising "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.

Customer Reviews

Patchy, but what wonderful patches
As the first track declares: 'Yes, something of a different pace!' I can't say I enjoy all the songs on the album. The chord structure and vocals on 'Share the Fall' and 'Watching Windows' could be stronger, and 'Mad Cat' is two songs: one that is horrible and difficult to listen to overlaid onto a wonderful drum beat. But forget all that, the other songs are inventive and fantastic and 'Destination' is probably one of the greatest songs in any genre. I listen to the Hospital Records podcast and unfortunately modern drum and bass has not been able to surpass this tour de force, moving too far away from the original instruments. Again, as the second line of 'Railing' says: 'Fresh, into 97 make haste'. 1997 was a good year for music.

Choice
Roni Size took off in a big way after the release of this album. I remmeber hearing "Brown Paper Bag" for the first time and thinking drum and bass shouldn't sound this good. People have over played the jazz element on this album. It is very jazzy, in places and when it needs to be, but it is also soulfull and funky.

To often drum and bass albums go off in one direction. Even other classic records such as Bukem's logical progression have similar a sound to them and as good as the tracks are, they lack variety. What Represents managed to do so well was develope a proper album and not a compilation. The opening onslaught of Railing energetically flows into Brown Paper Bag, Hero's is more soulfull and chilled and tracks like Morse Code follow, Adam F's style, a fuller bassy route. The real stand out track is "Share The fall" it fuzes jazz funk into drum and bass in away no other producer has ever managed, it rumbles and drips out of the speakers. If you ever get a chance to see the live set Roni and co did on Latter with Jules Holland, check the version of Share The Fall. Like many other of the legendary drum and bass producers Roni's recent stuff has been a little disappointing but fear not this album is good enough to last a life time.

Aural Perfection
There are certain albums that, whether you like the genre or not, you have to have in your collection. Colours, by Adam F in one such album...New Forms, is another. Unmistakably Roni Size, this album has something for everybody, and I've yet to meet someone who doesn't like at least 1 track on the album, such is the diversity of the production. Stop reading this and click the Buy it now button. UNLESS that is, you can track down, and affod, the Americain Import version. A double CD version that is, quite simply, beyond comparisson.