Timeless
Goldie
1995
Wikipedia
Reviews
Like a review? Give it a thumb up to help us display relevant reviews!It is very rare that a 10+ minute track earns its length, even in classical music or jazz, much less pop, so when I saw that the first eponymous tune on Timeless clocked in at 21:02, I was like "Uh, oh." Uh, oh indeed. The track starts out with godawful, ugly orchestra synth swooshes before some breakbeats kick in. I've gotta be honest. This kind of dance music has to be really creative and innovative before I can enjoy it and this music is just nothing special. At least Goldie is lucky enough to have a decent singer in Diane Charlemagne, although the melodies are pretty remedial. Actually, remedial is a good description for the entire track and this goes on for 20 fucking minutes. Good God! Given that the title track is obviously the centerpiece of the album, it would have been a miracle if the rest of the album was an improvement. Alas, a miracle was not forthcoming. Goldie makes The Knack look cerebral and deep.
Yeah, if ever there were an argument for revising the list of 1001 albums you must hear, it's this unfortunately titled record from Goldie. From the opening 20-minute track that, surprise, does not need to be 20-minutes, it sure does sound like jungle-whatever from 1995. It would be easy to pile on to a genre of music that does absolutely nothing to me, but it's no fun being mean-spirited. I'll just say that there are records from this era that have really aged well, that sound like they could have come out any time in the past few decades, that I could see myself listening to in another decade. This is not one of those records.
It was a day at work today, but you know what is great for cranking through the inbox? This album. Put it on, let the drum and bass set the groove, and zone into what needs to get done. This is adult adderall. I put it on when driving to lunch, and it wasn’t so interesting. But that’s not the point. This is an album with a specific purpose. And when heard through that acoustic lens (it’s a thing…and it sounds cool), this album deserves recognition.
Goldie's influence on D'n'B cannot be overlooked, but oddly enough his tunes have never been ones I've really loved compared with other producers. But I do recognise that if it wasn't for him, then some of the artists I prefer may not have existed. Was fun to listen to a whole album of his stuff as I wouldn't have if it wasn't for this.
Classic album. Created the foundations of an entire genre. You can't knock it's importance and you have to remember it's over 25 years old! Also, important to remember Rob Playford's involvement! Plus RIP Diane Charlemagne. 9/10
I really don’t like Goldie as a person. Might be an irrational hatred, I dunno. But whenever I see/hear him interviews I think he comes across as a massive prick. So I’ve never really been that fussed about exploring his music. This album was good though, a lot more tuneful in places than I thought it would be. The first track is pretty self indulgent in length, but Inner City Life is a tune so I forgive.
Yeah, I dig this. Great beats, inventive sounds, clever mixture of instruments. A nice add to my collection.
Man, does this take me back. Most of the 90s music that has come up so far have been things I have heard at least a bit of in the intervening decades. I didn't listen to Goldie or drum and bass until 98/99, then listened to it a lot for 4-5 years, and then haven't touched it since then. But it sure is familiar - took me back to that time about as much as it could without drugs and JNCOs. My good friend, who used the unfortunate moniker DJ Goon, used the first track in one of his mixtapes. "Inner city life/inner city pressure" immediately felt familiar - and missed! "Timeless" works great as background, but it rewards closer listening. Just as it settles in too much and gets too repetitive, it hits you with a break that just washes over you. Drum and bass presented an incredible leveling up of ambient music. Brian Eno walked so Goldie could run.
1.6 - The type of bullshit Jeremy and Super Hans from "Peep Show" were into. "This is a Bad" by Goldie might as well be called "This is Outrageous" by Jeremy Osbourne. At best, some (2? 3?) of the tracks might work as background music for an outdated hotel lobby. The rest are junk. What a complete and utter SLOG. Shitty fucking album cover, too
What the actual hell did I just listen to? Two hours of pointless, repetitive noise is what. The first track "Timeless" (a 25-minute drum loop) is clearly the title track. However, it should be the fourth track that gave the album its name: "This Is a Bad." What a trash album.
This is, indeed, Timeless. What a FANTASTIC album to just put on and forget about everything else. The first track is over 20 minutes long; the second is over 7. This is a LONG album that you can just keep playing. Also, definite heads-down coding music, which will always push it toward 5-star territory for me.
Surpreso com a qualidade de produção e por ter gostado de muitas músicas, mesmo não sendo um estilo que costumo ouvir. Álbum enorme, com músicas de 20, 12, 10 minutos. Músicas destaque, principalmente as com vocais femininos: - State of Mind - Sea of Tears - Angel - Inner City Life
Yes. I enjoyed very much. A little stale THIRTY years after it was released, but a great respite from the traditional sounds on this list. What happened to this guy?
I'll be honest. I've heard the name Goldie before and simply assumed that it's a random female pop singer. That should tell you more or less how much I know about D'n'B. That said, I really enjoyed this album a lot more than I expected. Especially the first half. My favorite track was State of Mind. eventually I found the album dragging on for too long however. And it being a bit samey, it started to get boring eventually. Therefore rounded down from 3.5.
Well, that was certainly unexpected. This group and album, and pretty much the whole genre they're in (not sure what to call it; "electronica," I think? but it has vocals, so not really sure), are all so new to me, and not what I usually listen to. There are some very interesting things going on here. Don't like all of it, but I really like 'Inner City Life.' The vocals are so soulful and soaring, with a really great bassline and beat under it. I don't usually like a lot of synthesizers but some of these tracks are really good. I think it's the rhythms they use, and, as mentioned, the vocals.
Very bold choice to open this album up with a 20 minute song. Almost to say, either you're going to like us or hate us. Well, I'm here to say I'm in the middle. For this being a pretty cool electronic album that came out in the mid 90's, I think that's impressive. For it being as long and repetitive as it is, that makes it less impressive. I don't know the history behind Goldie (maybe a cousin to Blondie?) but I'm imagining they inspired a lot of future electronic artists. It's a very intriguing album, it just runs way too long on every track.
From what I understand, this is an important album from the genre of Drum and Bass. Drum and Bass is a pretty niche genre, so your mileage will vary with how much you like the genre. For my money, I thought it was enjoyable enough. I like the atmospheric elements and how it enhanced the Drum and Bass (reminded me of Parkour Fortress. If you know you know). The obvious drawback is that it's an overly long double album. 105 minutes is a lot for any genre.
I'm sorry, I get drum and bass but it's just not for me. I really don't want to rate this one star because it's good, I'm just not the person who would enjoy 2 hours of this. Unless I was on something.
Yet more British ephemera that seems to just characterize so much of this list. The beats are really good, complex, and the drum textures just make is sound so expansive; but that’s not why I listen to music. This would be great at a party or in the background of a modern JRPG. Favourite track: “Angel”
I like beats and drums, but unfortunately I was not high enough to enjoy this on a weekday. Maybe once murphy figures out how to sell weed in New Jersey I can come back and reassess.
I was not expecting to like this, but lay that melancholy upon me! This album luxuriates with infinite sadness, like you're heartbroken but you're lying on the beach in Rio so it's not wholly bad. Each song takes it time, taking the listener one step deeper into sadness. There is no solution, not upbeat "you'll get over it" vibes. No, the album leaves you on that beach with tears in your eyes and the realisation that being there means nothing when there's no one by your side.
Drum and bass for outsiders like me. The pretty guitar loops and sound effects signify pop, while the female voices add emotional depth. But as the ambience sets in and the sense of time dissipates, it gets increasingly tedious, though never so specialist that it feels hostile.
Best enjoyed with illicit drugs or after suffering blunt force trauma to the cranium. For very low IQ individuals only
You might remember his full mouth of gold teeth from such films as ‘Snatch’ and ‘The World is Not Enough’
slower and more chill than I remember, but loving it, laid back beats taking me back to a time and a place!
Ambience. Je moet er maar in de stemming voor zijn maar dit is geen slecht begin van het genre
Reminds me of the music they play in british tv shows for when they are clubbing. It's an early drum and base album.
Att lyssna på DnB i två timmar i sträck är inte njutning i min bok. Trots det kommer jag på mig själv med att bli både lite nyfiken och imponerad vad jag hör. En och förmodligen den enda fördelen med riktigt långa låtar är att de kan berätta en historia på ett sätt som en 2 min popdänga inte riktigt mäktar med. Fastnade framförallt för Sea of Tears. Första 1.5 min målas ett dystopiskt &metalliskt ljudlandskap upp. Efter det ngt oinspirerande introt slängs trummorna på och efter hand även ngn jazzig gitarrslinga, vi lyssnar nu på klassisk DnB. Jag är på inget sätt imponerad, men ngt har satts i rörelse och jag vill veta vart vi är på väg. Så händer det. 4,5 min in i låten fadar trummor och ljud ut och ersätts av skriet från en fiskmås, vågskvalp och en kvinnoröst som viskar ordet tears. Från den här punkten har låten mig totalt hypnotiserad och det är inte först 7,5min senare när låten är över som jag väcks ur min trans och inser att det kändes som att jag färdats till en annan dimension och tillbaka. Vet inte vad som hände men jag vet att jag behöver mer av Sea of Tears
Oh boy, this is good. I went through a short DnB phase as a teenager, but that led me into breakcore, then IDM and techno. There's only so many rabbit-holes you can go down, so I never really made it back to much DnB or jungle. All the beat arrangements and the bass lines are great here. There's not a huge amount of melody on top - some occasional piano loops, etc. What Goldie largely does is layer up ambient textures. But instead of making ambient music with beats, the end result here is really lively and drum-driven, with the ambience giving it a floaty, cerebral quality. For many of these tracks, I felt like I was just a brain and a pair of ears floating in a jar of music. There's some bassy, noisy elements as well, to give some rougher edges. For me, the only weak point is the lack of variety in the vocals or vocal samples. Sometimes they verged on the cheesier side of house music for me. But they normally fit with the track and are arranged really well in the track, so it's a small grumble. For this corker, a solid 4.5*.
I quite liked listening to this! It was a total departure from what I'm used to, but I totally got into the groove. I had never heard of 'drums and bass' music before and I liked all of the other sounds (water, women moaning, you know) that came along for the ride. I do have to say that I was a little dispointed when I read 'Goldie' as 'Blondie,' but wouldn't you be?
A pioneering album that flipped the underground to the mainstream, Goldie hit gold with the chopped up drums, foreboding bass, synth strings and exquisite vocals from Diane Charlegmane (RIP). The scale and scope is ambitious and the album as a whole feels symphonic (no wonder Goldie’s interests turned to classical orchestral music later in his career). It may be overlong and perhaps a little dated but it is an extraordinary record, an example of a musician having a sound in his head with few predecessors and bringing it into life. It’s a really impressive record and whilst it won’t be universally beloved, it deserves its place on this list for its influence and impact.
This was one of those albums that still holds up well, and I think I appreciate the long opening "symphony" more as a grown up. It's a groundbreaking album that took drum n bass in a new direction that blended ambient, ethereal sounds with soaring vocals. A few tracks don't live up to the rest of the album, but overall I loved revisiting it.
‘Timeless’ is a staggering record. It’s widescreen in every sense. The production is amazing, and on a proper system it will blow you away. It still sounds vital, alive, and important all these years later. It’s not perfect: it’s way too long, and parts of it haven’t aged well, but you certainly can’t fault it for its sprawling ambition and cinematic scope. It’s smooth, silky, slinky, jazzy, dubby and warm and succeeds for the most part because its sound is so accessible. ‘Timeless’ was the record that made jungle/drum & bass sound legitimate to the masses, and in its best moments it’s mesmerising, well and truly transcending its club roots.
In keeping with the album being such a breakthrough for dnb, it’s more of a collection of ideas than a cohesive whole. This, in combination with the excessive length (which Goldie somehow managed to surpass for his next album) makes for lopsided whole. The tracks themselves, however, I have no issue with
Is not the kind of music i like, some parts of some musics are interesint, psicodelic...but the rapid parts are not the kind of EDM music i like it. However, i must say that the production of the album is quite good.
Muitas influências de eletrônica moderna, DnB, jungle. Me lembra bastante em especial SBTRKT, Squarepusher e Four Tet. Uma barreira alta de entrada, mas o ouro está mesmo no recheio do disco.
Välistä ihan tempaavaa biittiä, mutta oma maku on enemmän melodisen kuin bassolla pelaavan mmmtsin puolella. Kagonen ala- ja kolme yläkanttiin
Nice background and driving vibes, but felt the pace stayed the same a lot of the time
De zangeres hadden ze thuis mogen laten. Verder leuk om een keertje Drum ‘N bass voorgeschoteld te krijgen.
Interessante en met tijd en wijlen spannende muziek van naar wat ik las ern van de eerste drum 'n bass acts. Vond het toch een iets te lange zit en was ik datzelfde ritme steeds wel beu.
First track of the album is 21 minutes long... The album is about 2 hours long in total. A lot of the tracks has some really nice parts and is very inspiring, but in total it seems like there could have been some darlings that got killed. Good Drum'n'Bass and Jungle, but the vocals not so much.
really interesting to have a glimpse into this time capsule from the 90s! who listens to this today?
Me gusta el D&B pero este se me hizo demasiado repetitivo. No acabe de escuchar el disco.
I grunden gillar jag sån här musik men det faktum att första låten är 21 minuter lång visar att han har samma problem som jag när jag satt hemma med med eJay på slutet av 90talet och det är att komma på hur man avslutar en låt 😄. Lyssnade bara på två låtar dock
Break-beats. Ik houd hier wel van. Maar niet boven gemiddeld. Mijn favorieten zijn "State of Mind" en "Inner City Life". ***
en vérité j'apprécie vraiment la drum and bass, mais sur une courte durée (e.g. le quart d'heure de marche rapide pour ne pas être en retard chez le docteur)
I saw Goldie live in 1997. I didn’t realise that this album was so legendary, but I guess someone had to kickstart drum and bass. It’s a good listen, yeah, and so layered, but it does feel well dated.
Not really my kind of thing, but interesting. Many of the songs last much too long, but I guess that works in the clubs and/or makes it easier to create remixes. Inner City Life (part of the 20 minutes opening medey) was the big breakthrough hit, and probably the best "song". Plenty of other enjoyable music though, just not much that is as catchy or memorable
I guess you had to be there. I came around to some of these sounds through the Asian Underground. I think I wasn't young enough for this scene.
Goldie was able to create an expansive atmosphere, coupled with ethereal vocals and a litany of stringed instruments. Timeless is truly a timeless album that will always take you back to the mid 90s house/trance scene. Best: Timeless Worst: Adrift
Sorry guys… ja lyssna halva å sen så ble ja mighty sick å ja ha int haft krafter att lyssna klart… min review kommer i chatten pr pr
I'm probably being generous here because mostly I found this repetitive and a bit, well, too drum 'n' bassy. But i can see the artistry and the effort shinign through.
I'm sure it's very good, but I can't handle those drum & bass style ra-ta-tat drums...gives me palpitations.
Lol major techno vibes. It’s decent, just kind of sounds like everything else like this
Not very Timeless, and not really my thing, but it's interesting to see what's a really important landmark in DnB
This album did not do to well in the Netherlands. I found it an interesting album to listen to. Some numbers sounded a bit like Soft Soul. These songs I liked.
Pretty decent DnB album but hasn't aged especially well for an album called Timeless, it doesn't stand out at all now.
Znawca elektryka nie jestem, ale dwa gatunki zawsze rozpoznam dubstep oraz drum&base, calkowicie nie moja bajka, zbyt szybka muzyka jak dla mnie, jednak ten material ma tez wolniejsze tracki, adrift you&me state of mind, z dziwnie skompononowanymi wokalami, ale jednak ma, mimo tego strasznie meczylem ten albumik, jego spotifajowa wersja ma prawie 2 godziny, wiec przyjalem ponad programowa dawke elektronicznosci, na plejke leci saint agnel oraz this is bad, wacham sie miedzy 2 a 3, pewnie gdyby albumik mial godzinke, to byloby 3, ale zbyt mnie ta sesja wyssala z zycia
When I first read the artist I thought it was a different Goldie. Interesting to hear D&B on this list. Interesting but not a fan of the lilting crooning woman. Some of the high pitched synth sounds are a bit grating too. Repetitive, but that's the style of music.
Not really my thing, kind of difficult to listen to all the way through. Some good songs on there though.
Tbh I don't see nothing special in case of d'n'b, even taking into consideration the fact of releasing this album back in XX century. Nevertheless, it is still quite good, but I don't really understand why it is put here.
Really? 2 hours of monotonous beats, strange slightly musical noises? A breakthrough? A masterpiece? I don't get it. Do I have to listen to all of this? How about we pass a law that albums like this be no longer than 45 minutes. Not totally bereft of value. But I have no desire to ever listen to it ever again. 2 stars
"This is a Bad" - Goldie Sorry, I couldn't resist. The fact that this nearly two hour record starts with lines that would come to be the centerpiece of a Flight of the Conchords track did not help me take this album seriously. Nevertheless, I have to admit that it's fine, I guess. There's some interesting moments, but I feel like it mostly washed over me. I can appreciate that this is regarded as an influential record in the history of drum and bass music, but I just don't find it all that compelling to listen to. Favourite track: "Sea of Tears"
Despite it's title, album is the opposite of "Timeless", it's a time capsule of what was to come for the drum and bass genre. And to be fair, the beats are interesting and fairly complex, and there are some wild moments tucked away on this 2 hour long album, but that's where it lost me. I didn't feel engaged enough to warrant a two hour runtime, and frankly, it's difficult to judge Timeless without the satire music that has surrounded the d&b scene in pop culture. Fav Track: None
I understand the influence this album has in the drum and bass scene but feel it is better left in the clubs. To listen to this all the way through is difficult as it just doesn't go anywhere, I find it repetitive with no direction an from my standpoint uninteresting. It is also way to long. Listening to the entire work does not take me to a place that most music does, in fact it does the opposite in that it brings on a feeling of sadness listening to the album. There are a few tracks that are fine ("Inner City Life", "Sea of Tears") but overall it is not for me. I give it a 1 and a half - 2 stars.
3/10. There isn't a lot of space in my life for a 90+ minute album of electronic music. There were enjoyable tracks here and there, including the 20 minute title track, but there were also some tracks that annoyed me or bored me, which is pretty rough when the average track is about 8 minutes. A high 3, but a 3 nonetheless.
4/10 this had some positive qualities but it was a lot of fucking drum and bass and some of the songs really overstayed their welcomes.
Goldie? Never even heard of it. Bet it sucks though. Oh and apparently it goes for almost 2 hours. Good, grand, wonderful! aaaaand it's scungy UK techno, annoying drums, instant ps1 snowboarding game vibes. Fuck off. 2 hours? More like 2/5.
Good, but songs were a little long. I felt I got the vibe for a few songs at the 2 out of 7 or 8 minute mark, and not much else was added in the remainder of the song.
Meh. Every song sounds the same. Every song on the radio station that it played also sounds the same.
I appreciate Goldie for many things. Appearing on Come Dine With Me, accidentally giving away Banksy's first name, being in Eastenders. Musically, when he's at his most focused his output is exceptional. When i say focused..... I mean restricts his tracks to 7 minutes or less. I just feel that he sometimes veers into self indulgence and the more ambient side of his music just becomes a bit.....boring
Will say listening through this gave me more appreciation for DnB, but did not really like the album that much overall. Drum & Bass is already a very hit or miss for me as it is and this album did not hit. It felt like if the album had a thesis, it would've been "Melancholy". Much prefer Pendulum's style ;)
Well...this was an album. I can't say I HATED it, but the experience was profoundly underwhelming. It sounds like the stock music they used in early 2000s GTA games. It's not actively horrible, honestly. It's just really forgettable. I can't say I have a fave track but I also didn't hate it. A blah two stars from me.
Goldie was a new band for me, and Timeless was new music. The opening track reminded me of some of the soundtrack for the Power Puff Girls, but the rest of the listening experience dropped off after that. The album felt long. I did not enjoy many of the vocals, and the electronic music was repetitive enough that I had a hard time distinguishing between the tracks on the album. This album was not for me.
REPETATIVE. I dont like jungle, and even though this is the first jungle album. Its so long, andd the first song is the same thing over and over and over agin
Tja, toch maar wat gelezen over deze Goldie. Schijnt toch wel een beetje een echte baas te zijn in dit genre...
Nope. It'll take you less time to read Goldie's Wikipedia page and click on the page's links than it will for you to suffer listening to the entirety of just the opening track. I'm guessing this album is one of the first to get bumped from a future edition of the list.
Timeless indeed, this guy needs a watch. I pity any pour soul who dare sit through the three hour anniversary version of this. Apparently it was revolutionary for drum n bass, or something called "jungle," but while real jungles teem with life at every level, this feels vacant and lifeless throughout. I can't say it's bad on any technical level, but every song is long to the point of boredom for me, so the album was tough to sit through. I'm usually down for some electronic/dance type albums, but this one was pretty painful. Extremely dated, and not in a way that's fun (like the Prodigy for example). Not my style, wouldn't recommend it to anyone, and I'd personally axe it from the list. Favorite tracks: State of Mind. Album art: A cool cover that looks like it was designed by a 12 year old as his first project in a graphic design class. Edgier than the music, that's for sure. 1.5/5
Repetitive, boring, and outright annoying. This may have been clubbers' delight, especially during its decade, but it also helps us understand why said clubbers were always high on drugs - they had to deal with this music.
Couldn't get to the end of the first track. Started OK with lush strings, then female voice but soon descended into mad, intrusive drumbeats so the music was lost. Also stops and starts and isn't cohesive at all. I think it's supposed to be dance music, though the constant stop start must make it very difficult to dance to. It got slowly worse. Not really music.
This morning, I felt bad reading some of the harsher one star reviews for "Timeless": jungle and drum'n'bass are fairly niche genres, so it's understandable that a listener dipping into it on a merry-go-round of 1001 albums may not get a lot from it. But then I listened to it, and now I'm becoming one of those people. It's all on account of my vanilla preferences, but I guess I'm going to have to join that slew of one star reviews. I've never heard any Goldie before, and I must admit my knowledge of drum'n'bass or jungle goes about as far as "that stuff David Bowie tried in 1997". So I approached this as a cautious outsider to the genre, putting it on whilst working and unsure how much it would stick. The first hint that "Timeless" doesn't live up to its name is given by its garish album cover. The absolute confirmation comes about three minutes in to its opening 21 minute track, when it becomes clear the piece isn't going to develop much further than intermittent breakbeats and some ethereal pads and vocals. It may be a landmark album in drum'n'bass, but it's just a genre I don't care for too much personally and having to sit through ~2 hours of it is tooth-pulling. I don't want to dismiss it all completely: there were a few moments that were enough to make me sit up and pay a bit of attention. In truth, it's more melodic than I expected: there's a nice focus on atmosphere and more dynamic shifts than I thought there would be. I enjoyed the female vocals on many of these tracks, adding a touch of soul and warmth that it's hard to achieve with electronic drum samples. "State of Mind", for example, has verses, a solid refrain, and a sense of rise and fall. It's garnished with tinkling piano lines, a fretless bass hook and washes of cinematic synth strings. It's the clear high point of an album like this, and gave me slightly more respect for it. Unfortunately, most of that was then undone by the follow-up, "This Is A Bad", which was back to the formulaic loops and electronics- didn't do anything for me. Tracks like "This Is A Bad", "Saint Angel" and numerous others I won't go through in detail are much more similar to what I expected the album to be. They rarely let up from their breakbeat loops for about ten minutes, and don't go to anywhere near enough places to deserve being listened to for so long. If this had been about a third of its length (a whopping 105 minutes) then it could have boosted my star rating to at least a 3. But as it is, I'm going to stick with one star just because I don't even have the energy to listen again and articulate my thoughts on the rest of it.
Absolutely dire, this. Not a massive fan of this kind of music, and for it to work it needs to have a lot more energy than it does. Also, almost two hours long???
04/20/2022 This begins with a 21-minute long track. Really tells you a lot about what you're getting into. Had some nice things to say! Then it kept going. And going... And going. Lots of noise.
To me this was pretty boring and felt like background noise. Basic elements of techno 90s music. The album was long and didn’t have any exact moments of highs or lows. 2.7/10
There are barely words to express how awful this is. It is also unendingly long. Almost 2 hours of noise without any hint of emotion, melody, musicality or artistic merit. Listening to it genuinely felt like a punishment. A godawful album cover too. I understand that people have different tastes and opinions, and that is all part of the rich tapestry of humanity that keeps life interesting. However, I would seriously question the intellect and character of anyone who likes this. Rating: 1/5 Playlist track: Inner City Life - Baby Boy's Edit Date listened: 18/05/22
Sensacional. Já salvei aqui pra ouvir novamente depois, me lembrou demais as músicas do Ridge Racer 4. Alem de ser descrito como jazz futurista, tem vários elementos de drum n bass, e uma pegadinha de música eletrônica. Já garantiu um espacinho no meu coração.