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After the huge succes of 'New Forms' and the also highly acclaimed debut of his other project Breakbeat Era (with Reprazent collegue DJ Die), the time has come for another full-length album from the man who made jungle and drum'n'bass big: Roni Size, here together with his companions Reprazent. My version of 'In the Mode' counts 16 songs, but I already saw a version with 18 track as well. However, 16 songs within 70 minutes is a big meal to consume all at once. Beginning with 'Railing Pt. 2', this song is exactly what the title intends: a follow-up to the opening track of 'New Forms'. It sounds almost the same, with the same raps from MC Dynamite, and it's therefore slightly unnessecary. Not that it is a bad track, but we've heard it before. One thing becomes obvious right away: This album is a lot harder, much more energetic, and less jazzy than 'New Forms', but I don't know whether we have to be happy about that. Because of the above the songs sound a little bit too much alike. Most of the songs are up-tempo drum'n'bass tracks, very funky, and really good for the dancefloor. Tracks like 'Switchblade' and 'System Check' are good examples of this style: hard but not too aggressive, up-tempo and guaranteed dancefloor killers. Impossible not to dance. The album has many tracks like this, and that makes it as a listening album, well, less listenable. The fact that MC Dynamite (who has a far bigger role than on 'New Forms') produces boring lyrics like "That's right, basically, you see/The best is yet to come, we release the drum/When you succumb, you get numb" doesn't help much either. Come on! Is it so hard to write something interesting? And it's not that he's more than an average rapper, only in 'Who Told You' he produces an interesting style of rapping, the rest is mediocre. Also Method Man, who is the guest on the track 'Ghetto Celebrity', doesn't come much further than "I'm here with Roni Size, bla, bla, bla". The best raps and lyrics come from Zack de la Rocha, former Rage against the Machine madman. He carries the song 'Centre of the Storm' to a higher level by his anger and his lyrical attack against fascism (not a new thing for him of course), and the combination of a funky, aggressive jungle beat, string-quartet samples and his fierce performance works superb. Together with the more melodic 'Lucky Pressure' (soulfully sung by Onallee, who unfortunately sings a lot less on this album) it is the best track of the album. An album that unfortuately misses the compositoric finesse of the Breakbeat Era album and the jazzy listenability (?) of 'New Forms'. Personally, I think the abandoning of the jazz influences, which is also so evident on the new Photek, is a great loss for jungle and for the music of Roni Size in particular. He had the power to combine such influences with real dancefloor killers, making them more listenable, more real songs. That is what 'In the Mode' lacks. An album with great dancefloor songs, which sound too much alike to keep the attention going for the full 70 minutes. And please, let someone shut MC Dynamite's mouth.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/roni-size-reprazent/in-the-mode/612/
Meer Roni Size Reprazent op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/roni-size-reprazent
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