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Roni Size
Reprazent In The Mode
Not content to conquer d’n’b and junglist vistas, Size’s Reprazent has been carefully inching upon hip hop’s domain of vengeful boasts and pulverizing breakbeats. While house fans might consider this disc a commercial sway in the groundbreaking Size catalog, Mode’s enterprising use of theatrical interplay (featuring guest Rahzel doing his best Prince Paul imitation during “In Tune With The Sound”), Afro-funk thumps, and trip hop nuances are just more sonic ammunition among this collective’s armory. Always squelching boundaries, Size and crew assemble a distorted orchestral/baroque melody and cosmic interlude for Zack De La Rocha to spew “Centre of the Storm,” while concocting one of the most nerve-damaging, oft-kilter time signature riffage for the acidy “Who Told You?” (near impossible to chant the title in its strenuous 11/4 count). Outsiders, who only consider the breakneck velocity bpms, will be the first to be drawn in by the disc’s exotica of worldly, organic sounds, Onallee’s elegant vocals, and an old school charisma that flourished during ‘97’s New Forms. Takes so many musical risks that you often forget where the track began in anticipation of where it’s going. How many CDs do you own that are like that? –gloria collins (Talkin’ Loud/Island)
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