New Forms

Spin - Ranked #38 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Entertainment Weekly - "Like Soul II Soul, Bristol, England-bred Size and his group, Reprazent, create a funked-up soundscape of jazzy riffs, horns, wistful vocals, spacey bursts and pops, and MC toasting..." - Rating: A Spin - Ranked #13 on Spin's list of the "Top 20 Albums Of The Year." Rolling Stone - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Q - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997." NME - Ranked #28 in NME's 1997 Critics' Poll. Melody Maker - Ranked #7 on Melody Maker's list of 1997's "Albums Of The Year." Rolling Stone - 3.5 Stars (out of 5) - "...drum-and-bass that employs live instruments and shoots straight down the middle....Size and Reprazent make the best case yet for drum-and-bass as the ultimate end-of-the-century urban-soul music." Spin - 8 (out of 10) - "...It's this year's consensus electronica album....Reprazent understand that the real `jazz thing' going on in drum'n'bass....resides in the rhythm section--the relationship between hyper-syncopated breakbeats and the roaming, ruminative, but always visceral bass..." Village Voice - Ranked #15 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. Alternative Press - Included in AP's '10 Essential Pioneering Electronic Albums'. Vibe - "...The Bristol-based Roni Size and the Reprazent posse...audibly smash all preconceptions of drum'n'bass's being inaccessible....Roni Size and Reprazent have created new forms to love, cherish, and behold." Melody Maker - "...contains more vision...imagination in the first few minutes of it's opening track than 99 percent of any album, from any genre so far this year...the finest drum n'bass album of all time....it is to the Nineties what "Sgt. Pepper" was to the Sixties; a record of unbridaled passion." Paste - "[T]he album remains a tonic and astonishing listen....NEW FORMS still gives off a lot of heat."

From the final drum'n'bass pioneer to release a full-length, Roni Size's New Forms could well be the best. Though it's slightly bloated at two full discs, and slightly overhyped due to its winning Britain's Mercury Prize, New Forms was the major statement on drum'n'bass, barring only Goldie's Timeless. Size's prime asset is his unique style -- tough, careening breakbeats and metallic time-stretched effects over the organic, elastic sounds of upright bass and other jazzy add-ons. He also has a knack for deft pacing; though many of his productions test the seven-minute mark, he plays around with the beats so much that no track ever grows boring. On the title track, he weaves two sets of female vocals -- American rapper Bahamadia and resident Reprazent diva Onallee -- into the mix, digitally syncopating Bahamadia's rap into the production with complete precision. The constantly retriggering breakbeat on "Matter of Fact" makes it another highlight, and Size's transition from the atmospheric "Heroes" to a raging breakbeat storm like "Share the Fall" (both are Onallee features) is astonishing. Yes, Size's production clout is much more apparent on the first disc than the second, but New Forms is laced with so much genius it's worth the price of two discs to own all the excellent productions inside. ~ John Bush|