Bong-Ra-Stereohype Heroin Hooker
Vital Weekly [NL]
Clash of the titans....? Breakcore artist Bong-Ra has invited four well established and four up-comings from the flourishing breakcore-scene to remix four new tracks from the high energetic composer. The result is a very entertaining journey into the freakiest territories of contemporary breakbeat. The four tracks of Bong-Ra is also released on a 12", but unless the purchase is intended for a playlist on a rave-club, you shouldn't cheat yourself for the eight additional remixes on this cd-version since they definitely add something new to the original four tracks. Divided into three sections the opening section presents the original versions of Bong-Ra. In the following sections the tracks are completely deconstructed, broken and assembled into new pieces of aggression. In the second section we have the remixes of the established artists (Duran Duran Duran, Drop The Lime, Parasite, Enduser) and in the third section the contributions from the new rave-talents (Cardopusher, Dr. Bastardo, Ace Of Breaks, Cake Builder). As the four tracks have been converted into totally new forms and shapes we practically have twelve different tracks making the disc more appear as a compilation rather than a remixed project. Even the four original tracks have quite different approaches to breakbeat-style, though all of them belong to the club-oriented category of the electronic scene. The two opening tracks, "Coke Sniffah" and "The rush (long time coming)", has a slightly more melodic approach to the raving expressions thanks to their heavy use of sampled vocals. Especially "The rush (long time coming)" with its sweet built-in tune sung by up-speed high-pitch female vocals. Things get darker and more abrasive with the penetration of third track "Suicide speed machine girl" and fourth track "Death to false metal". Apart from the very well constructed breakbeats, "Suicide speed machine girl" is based on a pretty cool and a very aggressive guitar-riff of pure thrash metal fitting very well into the freaking hyperspeed rhythm-texture. Where "Suicide speed machine girl" was a harsh piece of work, "Death to false metal" is the moment where hell breaks loose. A short but very effective track of wrath, opening with an evil darkside drone of subtle noise, the track soon after leads us into an orgy of furious breakbeats based on ultra-fast rhythm grindcore patterns (reminiscent of the patterns from legendary fast-drummer of Morbid Angel, Pete Sandoval). In the remix-sections, especially Ace Of breaks impresses with his utterly bizarre deconstruction of "Suicide speed machine girl" experimenting with the alluring contrast between silent and noisy expression. Also Enduser does an excellent job with his atmospheric ambient-inspired version of "Death of false metal". Listeners of breakcore shouldn't miss this magnificent piece of full throttle energy.

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Mathhead - The Most Lethal Dance
Brainwashed [US]
Written by Matthew Jeanes
Wednesday, 05 April 2006
This is the sound of post-rave culture chopped up and spit violently back at the heads of those who remember what it was like to tweet on whistles incessantly in a warehouse at five in the morning, but it's also a trip through Mathhead's unique headspace by way of his sampler. Mathhead's debut for Reduced Phat represents the most fun I've had with a breakbeat record in some time.


This New York-based producer's take on blistering breakcore rave anthems is a perfect example of the power of the sampler. The first twenty seconds of the first track on this record contain more samples than most entire albums, making it nearly impossible to tell where Mathhead is going from the outset. This is the kind of record I want to hoist up whenever the copyright mooks rear their heads and claim that the digital world is killing the profitability and creativity of music. On the contrary, digitial technology and free access to an almost limitless supplies of shitty techno records is what makes records like this one possible, and we need more of them.

Mathhead pays as much homage to the last twenty years of contemporary dance music as he makes a parody of it, and that's what makes The Most Lethal Dance fun without leaving it sounding like a one-note joke. Laying goofy house piano riffs under ballistic breakbeats is nothing new, but there's a certain joy in the way Mathhead cuts an amen, a rumbling bassline, and a soul singer together. There are dozens of people doing this sort of thing right now, but this is probably the tightest and purest hybrid of short attention span rave and jungle mashups that I've heard from the lot.

The vinyl version of The Most Lethal Dance features three Mathhead originals along with an excellent mix of "Bonafidekilla" from Aaron Spectre and a megamix courtesy of Drop the Lime. The forthcoming CD version has all of that and a couple of extra tracks, including a strangely ambient remix by Mad EP. Where Reduced Phat has previously visited the visceral and hard-edged take on this sort of thing courtesy of Edgey and Enduser, Mathhead's record sounds more like the happy, bouncy flipside of the breakcore scene, and it's a welcome change of pace.

http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=c om_content&task=view&id=4810&Itemid=1
Stephen James Knight -
Everyone is beautiful to someone
Brainwashed [US]

As Edgey, Knight has released hard-pounding and visceral drum n bass and break-oriented music, but as Stephen James Knight he strips away most of the aggression and furious beat smashing to focus on something altogether more delicate.

It would be a crime to overlook the Aphex Twin influence on Knight's work on Everyone is Beautiful... and as the record gets going it honestly sounds like outtakes from Selected Ambient Works Volume 1 for a while. While a lot of people ape the Aphex sound, most try for the sputtering drill n bass of later era material, choosing to skim past the subtle earlier sound. Of course Knight has his own agenda and his own sound in the record somewhere, it just takes a few tracks for the album to actually get there. Once it does, Knight's keen sense of space takes over and while his melodies tinker around without jumping out of the speakers: they are balanced nicely with manipulated samples and a laid-back rhythm section.

For an album released in 2005, Everyone is Beautiful to Someone works with an almost alarming lack of computer trickery and DSP wank-off. It's actually nice to hear a record in this style that isn't obviously a collection of virtual experiments for the sake of making things sound "fucked up." Knight knows how far to push the envelope of sound design without letting the sounds take interest away from the compositions. This is, after all, an emotional journey of sorts and it works by building up and breaking down in predictable ways.

Sometimes the most affecting music is that which plays strictly by the time-honored rules-they don't get to be rules otherwis-and this record is a lot like that. It's not an album that will set new standards or light up the faces of those looking for a quick breakcore fix of the late-breaking, just-released-in-beta-yesterday plug-ins, but it's a nice way to see the softer side of a talented composer whose work is just starting to speak for itself.

All of my early to mid 1990's ambient techno feels dated now because I've heard those albums dozens if not hundreds of times. Stephen James Knight has the antidote to that situation-a record that sounds like it could have been produced in 1994, but that is absolutely as enjoyable today as it would have been then. As the record closes up with some frenetically programmed breaks, it leads into a pair of bonus Edgey tracks that change everything up and remind me who's behind the whole thing in the first place.

Written by Matthew Jeanes
Wednesday, 28 September 2005

Brainwashed
Stephen James Knight -
Everyone is beautiful to someone
SlugMag [US]

Stephen James Knight = Edgey - violence + emotion
With Edgey, the side project of Stephen James Knight, you get torn up beats where they get mashed into a bloody pulp. To contrast, the latest project of Knight’s takes a visceral tone with intelligible melodies to ride the wave of subtle percussion in eleven compelling tracks. Headphones are a necessity to feel the impact of tracks like “lighter days” and “Good Star” while “Glass Craft” and “Good Star” melt into the background of what you see when your eyes are closed. Edgey spent two years digging into his emotive core to pull out this dreamy tour de force and his effort really shows. To make sure you don’t get too comfortable listening to Everyone is Beautiful … Knight throws in two Edgey remixes showing off how different the two projects are. This very personal outtake abandons the madness of Hyde and reveals his pleasing Dr. Jekyll.

http://www.slugmag.com
Reduced Phat-2%
Raveline Magazine [Germany]
noise, speedcore, terror: broken-up beats, rolling jungledrums, snaring snares and screaming synths, dark sounds, which cause apocalyptic visions and paranoid attacks - all that and more give the three artists: Enduser, Subsektor and Edgey, who appear here with two of their own tracks, two of which are in turn remixed by both others. Each of the three young ones have their own style, in which the classical jungle influences are most apparent with Subsektor, where Enduser goes for contrasts and Edgey for roughness. An interesting concept on an interesting label from Florida, that you should really check out if you like high-speed drums and get raised neck hairs from jungle-noises in a wild-brutal, metallic-industrial noise context - Katamin
http://www.raveline.de/

GERMAN VERSION [Scanned Immage]
Reduced Phat-2%
SlugMag [US]
5/5
The first album off Florida's Reduced Phat label has marked the music world with the brilliant 2% non-compilation. For starts, the trigger-release CD case lets you know you have something different and good in your hands. Drum'n'Bass, break core and electronica fuse three musicians into one cohesive and addictive sect of the post-industrial sub-genre. Enduser, Subsektor and Edgey are the artists spotlighted with two original tracks each and those same two tracks remixed by the other two artists, for a total of 12 solid tracks. Not only is it a great idea to introduce three artists in this format, but also, this is an innovative way to get the goods out there without being cheated by one good track on a compilation. Enduser brings it on with a pop and lock of forcefully elegant bass and rapid beats on "Death Vest" and "Broken Target." Then Subsektor brings it with intense chaos and deliciously abrasive rhythms consumed in ominous textures on "The Breed." Edgey puts it all on the table with schizoid madness on "Brutalities End" and "Indigna". The six remixes are carefully cut up and masterfully pieced back together into even more mutanized glitchiness. Talent does not fall short with these three caffeinated beat masters. I can confidently say that you do not have to be a fan of Drum'n break-tronica to easily be won over with 2% of Reduced Phat. This is the first of three very promising non-compilations.

http://www.slugmag.com
Reduced Phat-2%
Brainwashed [US]
From the newly formed label, Reduced Phat, comes this anti-compilation, various artists release that announces the label's intent with gusto. I say "anti-compilation" because unlike most label comps that throw in everything that's passable that washes up on their shores, the Reduced Phat manifesto calls for paying attention only to the very cream of the crop of possible artists and releases that are all struggling to be heard.

Featuring two tracks and two remixes a piece from Enduser, Edgey, and Subsektor, the disc feels more like a fun exchange between a VIP group of like-minded artists than a collection of random and disconnected tracks from whomever happens to be out there. Starting with Enduser's unabashed homage to Lush, 2% quickly kicks into high gear and doesn't relent for five and a half tracks until a break in Edgey's "Indigna" calms things down for laughs. Enduser brings his road-tested production to the mix with his two splintered originals and remixes for his partners that eviscerate and then reconstruct their grooves with demented jungle abandon. Subsektor offers up the most straightforward take on hard drum n bass, but his tracks are no less confrontational. Edgey's superb reworking of "Death Vest" into a hard stomping mid-tempo piece is probably my favorite track, but Enduser's treatment of Subsektor's "The Breed" is equally fun and shows once again why Enduser is the master at mashed up drum n bass madness. Clocking in at just over an hour for 12 tracks, 2% provides all the essential breaks and bass without cluttering the mix with disposable or throw-away tracks. Edgey brings the weirdness, Enduser fractures the beats, and Subsektor provides the hooks and it all works without ever sounding like too much. As much as I liked the Carbon compilation that approached breakbeat music with a similar sensibility, this record feels more coherent and less kitchen sink. Whenever a new label jumps into the game of releasing records into a market that is increasingly unfriendly to physical CDs and untested products and brands, I get a little nervous. When the releases are as good as this one though, I can only hope enough people take notice to make the enterprise the success it deserves to be.- Matthew Jeanes


Brainwashed
Reduced Phat-2%
SceneNetworks [US]

Defying the conventional lines of genre, Florida's newest hell-born child, Reduced Phat comes forward with a macabre army of artists bent on devastating the grounds which electronic dance was built on with their first album, 2%. This CD, featuring twelve tracks of pure experimental breakbeat electronica, exposes the true destructive nature of resident artists, Edgey, Enduser and Subsektor. So what's the formula of devastation? Take three artists bent on the edge of ending humanity. Add two original tracks by each. Maximize the devastation by adding a remix to each of the original tunes, and you have the end result of 2%.

Enduser's wrath is felt first with Deathvest, a broken beat symphony that progresses into a fury of basslines and spliced drums, a superb intro to progress into the chaos that these artists bring throughout the first half of the disc. Subsektor's duo of tunes, The Breed and Cedex, shine through with articulate drums and a straight techstep feel, before falling victim to the chaos that is Thoughtbludgeon's dominant force, Edgey. Brutality's End is a superb mastering of broken beat drums and noise that closely resembles the darkest heavy metal that the world has to offer. Indignia places a glitchy midpoint to the disc, with a more downtempo feel added to layers of glitchy, ambient effects.

Continuing where he left off, Edgey converts Enduser's Deathvest into a fury of broken beat-bassline mayhem and speeds up the tempo. This is definitely one of my favorite tracks on the CD, incorporating many different genres and bending them into one masterpiece. Subsektor's remix of Broken Target brings me back to the days when amens ruled the drum ‘n' bass genre. Compiled with noise effects and dark atmospheres, this track spews forth the key elements which funded the legacy of darkstep drum ‘n' bass. Enduser's Remix of The Breed brings dance floor madness to the table, showing why he is indeed the master of broken beat drum ‘n' bass. As the compilation comes to a close, Subsektor reworks Edgey's own Brutality's End, transforming it into straight-forward drum ‘n' bass business.

Reduced Phat has done a great job with this disc, bringing forward the not-so-known ends of electronica, as it smashes its way towards an infernal oblivion. With the world set on the conventional genres of electronica, these artists have brought forward their eclectic forms of music theory and compiled it into one almost endless work of art. How will the world accept this new form of electronic music? The answer is simple. Just like the conventional genres of dance before it, with more releases and more exposure, Reduced Phat will become one in its own
- Sykophiend

Scene Networks Review