syncopated city

london elektricity

hospital, 2008

Mood—Fast, fun, and emotionally well-balanced

Sample: "Outnumbered"

Thoughts— If someone asks me if I like "drum and bass" music, my answer will be yes, but really, I mostly like the drum and bass from Hospital Records, and most of all London Elektricity.

Syncopated City, London Elektricity latest and best album, proves that drum and bass does not need to be relentlessly dark, songless, and conforming. One of the reasons I started this site was because of the specifities people place on music, especially electronic. I don't need to know whether something is "jungle" or "house" to enjoy it, and I don't think that musicians should make music hoping to fit into a preset label. This album is a perfect example of the right way to create music.

Yes, it is drum and bass. Yes, it is fast, 4/4, and contains the correct number of beats per minute. But unlike most drumn and bass, London Elektricity has a way of making his music amazingly musical.

I remember being at a club during college. The DJ was playing some sort of "tecnho" track, full of beeps and bass drum, no real melody to speak of. Someone leaned over to me and said, "I love this song!".

I thought, "Is this a song?" I mean, I knew it was music, but to me it was not a song. Syncopated City is full of songs.

Every piece of this album is great. The instrumentation is inventive and impeccable. The singers are talented and well-suited for the songs they are singing. "Dark Matter" is haunting and cold, "All Hell Is Breaking Loose" is funny and spirited, and "Just One Second" is both lyrically and musically beautiful, so much so that I get shivers.

There are only about five songs that I know that actually make my skin react, and that can make tears well up in my eyes. "Just One Second" is one of them.

One of the things that London Elektricity is so good at doing is putting out an album that is consistent yet varies in style from track to track. One might thing that an album that requires a high BPM ration might have a hard time bringing calm tracks to the table, but listen to "Point Of No Return" or "Syncopated City Revisited", and you'll see how he does it.

I know that drum and bass is not something that everyone understands, but the good part about music is that you don't have to understand it, you just have to enjoy it.

Recommended? Yes yes yes yes yes.

Link—londonelektricity.com

Tracklist
1. Bare Religion
2. This Dark Matter
3. Just One Second
4. All Hell Is Breaking Loose
5. South Eastern Dream
6. Attack Ships On Fire
7. Point Of No Return
8. Outnumbered
9. Uska
10. Sat Nav
11. Syncopatd City Revisited