New Forms

Ok Roni, we both know I didn’t listen to the full thing, so let’s just shake hands on a 3

This is one that really shows the UK bias in this list. I don't think anyone (non-UK people, anyway) outside of drum and bass or DJ culture would consider this any kind of essential album - it's cultural relevance is pretty niche in the rest of the world - so I don't know how much it belongs here. That said, giving it a fair hearing, I didn't enjoy it too much. I could get into some of the beats but the overall style and production sounds very dated and I found most of the vocals kind of embarrassing.

Listening to this entire album felt like having a panic attack in the back row of an international flight. 2

There is no universe or reality in which this is an essential album. It does nothing well and is not unique or memorable. 78 minutes of the same mediocre d&b beat over and over again.

Very rare for an electronic/dance music album to win the Mercury Music Prize but it is completely unprecedented for a drum and bass album. I'd be surprised if it will ever happen again. This is one of the albums that put drum & bass on the mainstream music map. It's a wicked album, super pioneering, blending lots of different influences, particularly jazz and hiphop. You've also got to factor in the timing of it, artist-led d&b albums were not common in 1997. And it still sounds fresh! "In The Mode" might edge "New Forms" for tunage, but it is nowhere near as groundbreaking or influential. 10/10

Snoozefest. This album overstayed it's welcome so much, it put a tent up in my living room and left its feet sticking out the flap, muddying up my rug. Being boring is more sinful than being bad.

Every song was easily a minute or two too long. I have a lot of drum n' bass, but the songs either need to ba shortened or another theme needs to be put in there. They were getting tedious. I appreciated him for what he was trying to do, but... man.

Was a really tough call between a 4 and a 5. On the one hand it’s a seminal album that has influenced a lot of the music that I like nowadays, with some classic d&b tracks in there. On the other, I felt it dragged a bit and some of the tracks went by without really making an impact. I’m also not sure I’d listen to this as a full album all that regularly, which should rule it out as a 5. But it’s difficult to ignore it’s legacy and influence. This is the most torn I’ve been about my scoring of an album yet.

- First album I couldn't finish - Repetitive beats and not great vocals - Felt like I'd been listening for hours - Really questioning the validity of the Mercury Prize if this won

Listening to this gave me anxiety. Spotify served me up a 5 hour, 4 disc album set for this title. No chance I was going to make it through that without falling ear-first onto a fork. I listened to the first one and called it a day.

I remember this sounding like the future when it came out. It still sounds fresh, but time has tamed it. Runs out of steam and becomes irritating in places.

When the drums started I was like "alright this is not bad." Hip hop but sorta jungle electronica-ish? Not bad to have on in the background while working (which I am doing now). I like New Forms... uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. Reminds me a bit of DJ Shadow, there's a darkness here that I like. Oh shit this is the 2hr album. I did enjoy it, but Jungle/DnB is very draining lol, but I was working and trying to stay awake so it worked well. 3.5 up to 4.

Why is this garbage considered music. Someone standing behind a computer pushing buttons while the crowd trips on Ecstasy. Never heard of Roni Size or Reprazent, and wish I never had. More worthless electronica shit that has no place on a list like this. What did this influence? This is the music aliens listen to while they probe your arse. Fuck electronica, and drum'n'bass. 9-10 minute songs with looped shitty lyrics, and wind chimes as a musical instrument. And why would someone turn Morse code (the most irritating sound on earth) into a song? Favourite song: Beatbox because it's only 1 minute long. It features someone trying to beatbox, but they're so bad at it that they just record a small clip and looped it to make it sound impressive, but it is actually shit. Least favourite songs: the whole fucking album. 1/5. There's an hour and 20 minutes I'll never get back.

A classic. This album was one of the first DnB albums I heard and definitely helped send me down the path.

Very conflicted here. I like this - some of it very much - but it just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on...

It’s the late 90s, beer is cheap and the Tories have been booted out. Cool Britannia is in full swing. A bunch of 20 year olds are making their way back from an all night rave, Roni is blasting out on the car stereo and the drum and bass washes over them as the summer sun starts to rise. The hints of jazz add to the vibe and they are loving life. Meanwhile everyone else on the planet is glad that the skip function exists! Top track: Brown paper bag (well the first 3 minutes of it).

Yeah, I'm definitely biased for this one. I'm a British guy who loves a lot of electronic music and was introduced to Drum and Bass at a young age. I can only imagine the effect it had at release, winning the 1997 Mercury Prize and likely being one of the seminal albums that brought DnB to a mainstream audience. It's impossible for me not to love this album. I just wish more DnB songs utilised a double bass. Favourite: Brown Paper Bag

Brown Paper Bag is a stone cold classic and was one of several massive tunes from the end of that decade to facilitate the beginnings of a crossover to the mainstream for late-90s Jungle/D&B. A lot of the tracks are on the minimally-orchestrated/barebones side, and some are actually tosh, but some of them are standout and have a huge vibe to them. Definitely worth checking the 20th anniversary edition over the original release, as it includes hours of extra singles releases, B-sides and alternative mixes. Best tracks: Brown Paper Bag (the full vocal remix is better IMHO), Matter of Fact, Heroes (and the 2017 remix), Hi-Potent (originally released as the B-side to Brown Paper Bag 12" single, and you'll notice the iconic double bass sample in a less chopped up form), Trust Me (simple but brutally effective dancefloor classic!) (and the 2017 remix), Share The Fall (for those who like their jazzy beats chopped and sliced), Jazz, Ballet Dance (very Paradox/Seba/Fanu/Equinox/Pieter K/PFM/LTJ Bukem style), Western (which uses the classic "Let a Woman Be a Woman" break) (and the 2017 remix)... yeah, this is a solid slab of Bristol-infused Drum & Bass from Roni Size, Die, Krust and Suv from the late 90s, with some fresher takes on some of the tunes from the last decade. It's not a 5 star album, but it's a strong 4-star contender -- if only for the amount of newcomers it brought in to the genre, thanks to its accessible style and pop-infused sensibilities, which were still not as prevalent in the late 90s (most D&B back then was quite dark and moody).

Pre-listening thoughts: 2.5 hrs… drum and bass… no… Post/during listening thoughts: it’s all the same and there is almost nothing redeeming about this. We were on such a good streak so makes sense we got hit with a dud 2/10 DID I NEED TO HEAR THIS BEFORE I DIE: NO Fav tracks: Beatbox Least fav tracks: yes

10/10

Офигенный drum and bass альбом. Уверен тогда был классикой

Boom! Yes! As a child of 90s Britain, time was that you couldn't adjust your stereo without landing on a pirate drum n bass station. I'm sure the purists will hate this album but in the genre they don't come bigger than Roni Size. Iconic

Excellent drum & bass album. It felt rather repetitive at first, but I got into it once the more familiar tracks kicked in, and on the second listen it all fell into place nicely.

Yes, this is great! I already know and love this album. Drum and bass is a style of electronic music I'm not massively familiar with. I guess it's mostly a singles-oriented club genre - but this one is an ambitious, fully-realised album that also makes you want to get on a dancefloor. I love the cerebral ambient moments combined with thumping energy. I love the basslines, which I guess are often being sampled from jazz/funk/soul records? I actually think the shorter version (which was originally the 1CD/cassette release) works amazingly in a single sitting, but I'm not opposed to hearing the whole 140-minute double album anytime! 5*

Big Roni Size fan but had not heard this album end-to-end. I really enjoyed it and will probably revisit. This artist sent me down a big drum n bass rabbit hole back in the 90s that I still dive into from time to time. Love the jazz and (light) reggae influences, and the vocals, while not always my cup of tea, aren't overly distracting and in the case of "watching windows" really add to it.

I used to love drum and bass but never really saw the point in Dance Music that you don’t dance to. This album bridges the gap somewhat with more hip hop influenced vocals, jazzy double bass and skittery live drums. I mostly enjoyed the half time triphop stuff like Watching Windows. It didn’t get nearly as much acclaim but Roni Size and DJ Die worked together again a few years later on Breakbeat Era, which I think really nails this style of more “listenable” D&B.

Without a doubt it’s a classic of the genre however drum & bass is now considered quite niche and has stepped in and out of fashion since its late 90’s heyday. New Forms is up there with Timeless & Modus Operandi and is maybe a bit more accessible, Heroes & Watching Windows being big singles. It’s the likes of Brown Paper Bag, Hot Stuff & Down where the surgically produced bass come to the fore. Hadn’t listened to this in a while and to be honest picked out a few tracks for the review. Still stands up!

Familiar with the full vocal remix of Brown Paper Bag from an MTV comp called AMP2. Fondly remember watching AMP late at night and am generally a fan of this era of electronic music. 1 cd alone can hold an indulgent amount of music in 70+ mins but a double cd is alot to take in. Had to listen in two separate sessions. Though drum n bass is very "meaty" as far as electronic music goes, the higher BPMs over the course of a double cd can be exhausting if you're not on drugs. Like the upright bass sound. I think I prefer the 2nd disc from "Intro" on. Its more instrumental/atmospheric and has a wider range of moods.

on a couple of songs the band uses a synth sound that's the same as the chime I have for new email

Best Song: Railing. Makes me feel like I'm wearing neon wraparound glasses and absolutely thrashing in an abandoned parking garage. Worst Song: Matter of Fact. This kind of music only works for me insofar as it is unabashedly in-your-face. Here it attempts to do this wishy-washy background thing, which just comes off as annoying. Overall: I liked some of the boomboomclaps and not other boomboomclaps, but I lack the vocabulary to describe what makes some better than the others. As a listener naive to this genre of music, it initially felt like it had an exciting speed and energy to it but I found that I quickly acclimatized to the speed and was left finding it too repetitive.

The drum and bass feels pretty dated. But they do some interesting stuff with it.

This is outrageous, this is contagious. This is outrageous, this is contagious. So futile.

(1/5) So, I think I slogged through the main, original album because all YouTube had was some sort of fresh hell in the **5.5 HOUR** version with all the remixes (how could you tell the difference??) a torture chamber can handle. It was 2 hours (I guess or thereabouts) of ceaseless repetition and the same fucking phrase chanted over and over. This might be fine on drugs, but I wasn't on any today and this simply added fuel to my "I hate electronica" fire. What a goddamn chore. Could you imagine what sort of unimaginable horror 5 hours of this would be!? That might be an essential element to my personal hell. 🤔🤔 Pretty sure Dimery is my torture demon waiting for me in the pits with a constant monotone break beat and the same shitty bleep-bloop on repeat, to be enhanced by my screeches at constant regular intervals. Might be better than this shit.

This feels like a meme, something in a late 90s / early 2000s show would use to demonstrate "dangerous youth" at a bus-stop

This shit gives me anxiety. 1/5

power of the what now?! foreskin? no thank u champ. am i gonna be able to listen to this whole thing?! really not feeling it

This is a stone cold 5 if you don't know you don't know. Brown paper bag alone transformed so many raves. This is what 90's music should have been instead of generic indie.

This album on computer speakers: 2* This album on headphones: 5* and that's the way I first listened to it at the time, so I go with the 5*

4.5 stars. Probably not the first drum'n'bass record to have heavy jazz sounds and influences, but certainly the landmark album (and a 2CD behemoth at that!) establishing what is still a very active subgenre and world of music. Classic.

Forgot how much I loved the songs on this album - reminder of the 90’s and whilst at Uni

I don't need to review this. 5* all day long.

Epitomises a genre I love and that was uniquely British in its inception despite obvious influences from hip-hop, jazz etc.

Yes. I remember a couple of these tracks from release, and enjoyed at the time. Listening back now I'm pleasantly surprised at how cohesive, catchy and just plain good this album is. Gets five stars for freshness, even after 25 years.

Interesting d&b album!

Super new millennium vibes, those drums were amazing

Wowwwww some jungle history. Incredible

New Forms Although rhythmic repetitiveness is the nature of the beast (actually nature of the _beats_, amirite?!), I like how there’s a lot of jazz and hip-hop influence weaved throughout this, particularly with the use of upright bass, most effectively on Brown Paper Bag. I listened to the full 2 disc version a couple of times, which of course is very long. Too long really, as although it’s extremely well made and thought out, the virtually identical tempos and drum patterns do start to wane significantly over the course of the full 2hrs 20minutes (although Jazz on the 2nd disc is great). If I was a dnb aficionado I’m sure I would be better able to discern the small differences and nuances, although in general I think can appreciate there are subtleties across it, even if I might sometimes be oblivious to them But the single CD version, from Railing to Destination, although also long, is much more easily digestible, and is in its own right a great album I think. There’s a couple of stand out tracks in Brown Paper Bag, New Forms, Digital and Heroes, and I like the more hip-hop fractured beat of Watching Windows and it’s great to work to, the rhythms and unfussy arrangements giving it a considered feel. And those jazzy accents also give a very appealing late night atmosphere, not really of a frantic dnb club night, but more of a staying up late to write an essay or play Championship Manager 97/98. This really grew on me, especially when I just listened to just disc one a few more times, it has a sense of serenity, but is always interesting, full of little details, but also one of those albums that can drift past pleasantly, and a much better proposition with a greater sense of craft than say LTJ Bukem. As a 2 disc set it is flawed by it’s length, but as a single album I think it’s great, and it gets to a 4, as I’m definitely coming back to it. 🥁🥁🥁🥁 Playlist submission: Brown Paper Bag

I think this was the album that introduced me to drum and bass or it was the most impactful for me at the time. I saw the video for Brown Paper Bag late one night on MTV and got the album the next day. Not a bad album to start on considering it’s now revered as one of the best of all time. I still throw it on from time to time all though I don’t usually make it through the whole thing. Taking this album on is a pretty big commitment unless it’s a background thing. Like most songs in the electronic world from this time there’s a lot of repetition through out the lengthy tracks, at times that’s the one thing that sets this album back a bit unless you’re looking for something meditative. Roni Size gets a lot of credit on this album but I feel like DJ Krust is a pretty major contributor too, earning production credits as part of Reprazent. I stumbled upon Krust’s music not long after discovering this album and I loved that he had a similar sound but really pushed his songs further with a more cinematic approach. Aside from having a stellar collective of producers, there’s also some talented vocalists, rappers and musicians featured through out as well. You can tell this collective really poured everything into this album without it feeling overstuffed, it still holds up and I was happy to revisit it.

Not my genre for sure, just nothing to really grab onto here. Not a terrible listen by any means, just not exciting or memorable.

pior que ouvi tudo. a primeira metade foi uma tortura, tava morrendo de sono. a segunda deu uma melhorada brutal. até peguei um café. enfim eh longo e meio repetitivo. mas eu curto bem um drum 'n' bass, entao achei de boas!

Brown Paper Bag Share the Fall

Drum/dance/EDM music. Pitchfork: n/a Rolling Stone: n/a

Pretty chill for d&b

Honestly a lot better than I was expecting. Got kinda a Mirror's Edge/Persona 3 vibe to it. Really good background music. But it's not music I'll really go back to. Gonna get my "EDM isn't my thing 3/5".

Would prefer it without singing.

Interessante

drum'n'bass in your face all over the place

filled with cool sounds. woulda been sick as a rasta jungle albm

I like it. Its like the Oceans 11 soundtrack a bit.

Repetitive and kind of boring. First track starts off promising, but the other tracks don't deliver.

As soon as the first track started it reminded me of a comic book for some reason. I’m sure it’ll be fine but man does it need to be over an hour. Into song two and there is a totally different vibe but overall I can tell this going to be overproduced no heart no feel. Not my bag, man.

What are these “New Farms”? We’re bullied by double-albums this week, and Size suffers from following Wonder. This has enough strong points to make a killer 45 minutes. Unfortunately, it sleepwalks past two hours and becomes wallpaper. Like “Timeless”, “New Forms” is better served by room-filling sound systems, but gentrifies further, which repulsed me at the time. The stuff on the radio didn’t need big speakers to slap, and I didn’t get past the first few minutes of double-bass loungecore when this was current. The main innovation I hear - unfairly - is the slotting-in of the double-bass to lounge this up. Hated it back then, soothed by it now; on “Trust Me” the double-bass notes take on a UFO-like quality. There will be other innovations, but I’ve missed them due to the music becoming wallpaper. “Digital” is a definite exception, a banger. As is the very last song on the 2-CD collection, “Sounds Fresh - Edit”, which is dialled in, cymbals reshaped into sword duels. Those two plus the best parts of the rest would be a blinder. Rounding this up to 3/5 as cloth-eared comments dominate the discourse.

I was so happy that there was finally an electronic album but as soon as I pressed play on the first track and I heard a drumnbass beat I knew that my excitement was for nothing. The thing is, some of the songs were actually really good like the title track but the beat just ruined the whole thing for me. So much wasted potential 😣

A decent drum and bass album by Roni Size. It perfectly encapsulates the sound of the 90s, with the repetitive drums and high hat synths with underlays of record scratching that were often heard in many 90s movies. Best: Brown Paper Bag Worst: Mad Cat

There was drum and there was bass

Kinda cool, but nothing crazy

224. New Forms - Roni Size (1997) 10.3.26 Variety: 2 Adequacy: 4 Listenability: 2 Uniqueness: 2 Emotionality: 2.4 = rounded down to a 2 "Measure the/ / Contents to paint your best concoction of catchy phrases/ The outcome is a mind that's ageless, while yours is senseless" Having gone through a couple of similar lists throughout the years, and been a fan of some of online review sites that make curated lists, I've actually managed to at least have heard of a lot of the artists on here, even if I've never heard any of their work. This is one of the cases where I'm going in completely blind. Not only is this in a subgenre that doesn't much interest me ( drum and bass), it's also an act that seems to have left a VERY small cultural footprint, with only two albums released in 1997 and 2000. I wonder how well known these guys are even in the UK. As far as EDM stuff goes, I've always had trouble distinguishing the specific sub and micro genres from one another, and a lot of the times when I find something I like, I am able to just sit back and bask in the beeps, bloops, and beats. For something like this, I'm not looking for anything deeper than "is it good background music?" usually. So, don't expect any detailed analysis, and I might be way off on my comparisons. But I do in fact like some of this stuff and find it a nice break in the formula when they pop up in between more dense albums that require more focused listening. THE TRACKS Disc 1 / Cassette "Railing" - I was not expecting vocals on this album. Or at least not so much. This sounded to my ears like something that would have been at home on the 2001 Tomb Raider movie soundtrack, and reminded me a bit of the Prodigy. ( edit: looks like Roni Size has noted that Liam Howlett of the prodigy frequently credited Roni Size's DJ sets as an influence on him). This was decent stuff, if not really my thing, and not something I'll remember for very long after. "Brown Paper Bag" - This was an interesting change up, and seemed to loop in some acoustic stringed stuff ( or maybe electronic approximations?). It had a breezy, catchiness to it, but felt very much like music I'd hear maybe as a track in a Jet Set Radio video game. A definite step up from the first track, and I think I might have a preference for the tracks with no vocals, if this is going to be a back and forth sort of thing. Good atmosphere, and good pacing on the switches between fast and frenetic and jazzy and mysterious. "New Forms" - I guess I may have guessed the format? We get more vocals on this one, this time from rapper Bahamadia, whose low key, but acrobatic flow I really dug. Overall there were some Goldie vibes. I might have to check out some of her work based on how smoothly this went down. There were solid jazz vibes on this, and it kept my attention a bit better even due to the vocals and the somewhat eerie, spacey atmospherics. "Let's Get It On" - This one was more of the same, and followed the pattern with no vocals, and a much more video gamey, repetitive feel. It was way more generic though than "Brown Paper Bag" though, and I did find myself zoning out a bit. It picked up a bit near the end with a dive into some ambient droning, but too little too late, and felt pretty throwaway, before blending into the next rack. The first real misstep I think. "Digital" - The beats on this were pretty damn good, but the vocals ( provided by Onallee here) did not do much for me. Again I started feeling my attention slipping and even started feeling a little drowsy ( I have not been up very long at all by this point in the day, and had just finished off a half a pot of coffee). I did get some Massive Attack vibes off of this though. "Matter of Fact" - While we're throwing out comparisons - this one reminded me a lot of the more spare drum tracks by Aphex Twin. There was plenty of atmosphere here, and the slips in and out of the drum loops kept me on alert the whole time. While not exactly menacing, there were some mysterious and spooky parts. "Mad Cat" - This one flows right on from the previous track, and opens with some sampled vocals and what sound like some animal noises, maybe pulled right from one of those Sounds of the Rainforest CDs. The drum loop was a jazzy breakbeat, and there was a weird electronic buzzing keyboard line over top that felt like it might have felt more at home in a Boards of Canada track. Overall though, this was weird, and funky, and different enough to standout from most of the previous tracks. I also dig the ghostly falsetto wailing I thought I heard in spots, that put me in mind of something the Gorillaz might have used. "Heroes" - Onallee is back with some jazzy vocals over top more Aphex Twin beats. Her vocals were fine, but I much preferred the music underneath, and even that was pretty generic compared to the better stuff I've already heard. This just was not my speed and felt like a bad mix to me. "Share the Fall" - A ghostly flute sample, and some vinyl crackling opens this one up, and the vocals ( once again from Onallee) felt much better integrated into the music. A bit too long, but a step back in the right direction. The horns at the end were a welcome bit of flavor. "Watching Windows" - The reverby beats on this one were nice. But it feels like we're trapped in an Onallee album by this point, and I'm waiting for some more variety. What sounds like some very cool real bass work here though. "Beatbox" - Exactly what it says on the label. Some looped beatboxing with some really impressive delivery, but felt more like a novelty than anything substantive. At least it was short. "Morse Code" - This one opens with some very cinematic instrumentation, with yep... some Morse code beeps and boops. This was much more of what I was hoping to hear. An oddly creepy childlike vocal is used in the rhythm here, overtop a frenzied, manic breakbeat that threatens to explode the whole time which it ever really does. Some hat bass comes in at the end to supplement though, and it ends with what sounds like a train or subway car rustling along the tracks. "Destination" ... which continue into the next track where the train car comes to a stop, and the doors open to some very jazz-forward horn loops and an upbeat tempo. This was all pretty decent, but I'm feeling a little worn out by this point. Disc 2 "Hi-Potent" - An acoustic guitar loop opens this one and it seems like we might be stepping a bit outside the range of influences we saw on the first half. This feels a bit proggy ( and in fact I swear that I just heard a sample from the beginning of "Roundabout" by Yes ( that opening plucked guitar bit). This was a VAST improvement over the last half of side one. The bass work here was STELLAR and sounded analog to me. "Trust Me" - That great bass continues here for a good but not spectacular follow up. It's still much more preferable to teh tracks with vocals though. "Change My Life" - Fine as well, but this really just feels like a continuation of the previous track. "Share the Fall" - My memory of the track from the first half with the same name is so vague that I don't recall ( even just having listened to it) whether or not this is a remix or the other way around or what? That last one I think had more vocals from Onallee, so I think this one I might prefer. It's coming in the homestretch though, and I'm pretty well worn out by now on the sound. "Down"- The opening of this one promises something lighter, and maybe mor delicate with its wind chimey keyboard loop, but the beat over top is ALL energy and forward momentum. It's an interesting juxtaposition, but as I'm not currently dehydrated, and grinding my teeth while contorting under flashing lights, some of its charm is lost on me. "Jazz" - More of the same. Again - I have to call out the great bass work. This felt more straightforwardly jazzier than most tracks. No surprise I guess with the title, huh? "Hot Stuff" - Moody and atmospheric most of the way through, and I really appreciated the chill vibes in relation to the more manic beats on previous tracks. "Ballet Dance" - More wind chimes to open with, but this time it stays very low energy, with a shuffling beat, and that airy mysterious vibe over top, enhanced by more great analog instrumentation, including a twangy guitar. A fine closer. HIGHLIGHTS - "Brown Paper Bag" - "New Forms" - "Matter of Fact" - "Morse Code" - "Hi-Potent" - "Hot Stuff" - "Ballet Dance" MIDLIGHTS - "Railing" - "Digital" - "Share the Fall" - "Watching Windows" - "Beatbox" - "Destination" - "Trust Me" - "Change My Life" - "Share the Fall" - "Down" - "Jazz" LOWLIGHTS - "Let's Get It On" - "Heroes" FINAL THOUGHTS Perfect music to speed run Crash Bandicoot to while jacked to the gills on Mountain Dew: Code Red. Not only was this a double album (139 minutes!), the track lengths were pretty long as well, and this contributed to a bit of fatigue by the time the first disc was winding down. I think if I had been doing other stuff around the house, or maybe in the middle of a 2.5 hour gaming session ( something I have not done in 20+ years, and was a rarity even back then) this would have went over a lot better than it did. It's excellently produced and even seems to have some warmness that a lot of late 90s electronic music fails to capture, maybe because they used a lot of real instrumentation? The credits don't really make it clear. I imagine, having read a little bit about these guys and how long they had already been around, and the influence Roni Size in particular seems to have had on other acts that came out of the UK club scene in the early 90s who later went on to become big hitters, that this album may have served as a calling card of sorts. Sort of like an announcement that "hey - you know all this cool shit you like? Well I helped usher some of that in, don't forget about me." So overall it feels stuffed to the gills, like Size didn't want to leave anything out and maybe had so many ideas floating around in his head ( or even fully reliazed) over the last 10-15 years that this was probably felt like a release. The fact that the follow up is not on the list and they didn't do much more together, hints that they drained the account, to use the vernacular, with this one. Which is fine and all, but it should have been half as long and I might have had a better time with it. Possible turn-Offs might include: - interminable run time - repetitive electornic drum and bass is not for everyone - lack of anything that really grabs your attention You Might enjoy this if you: - want some chill out music to do chores to - are looking for background music for a more lowkey party that will last for a couple of hours - are really into smooth, and well produced EDM that's on the more subdued end PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Not even sure I'm down with revisiting those highlights, but glad to have a least heard them once I guess. I would definitely stick to just those if you want to get a sense of this album without spending a couple of hours on it. FURTHER LISTENING Precursors: - A New Chapter of Dub by Aswad - Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock - Heavy Weather by Weather Report - 28 Gun Bad Boy by A Guy Called Gerald - Timeless by Goldie Contemporaries: - Kollage by Bahamadia - Hard Normal Daddy by Squarepusher - Permutation by Amon Tobin - Mysteries of Funk by Grooverider - Blue Lines by Massive Attack - Dummy by Portishead - Leftism by Leftfield - Richard D. James Album by Aphex Twin Descendants: - The Fat of the Land the Prodigy - Demon Days by Gorillaz - Los Angeles by Flying Lotus - Pull the Plug by London Elektricity - Black Sands by Bonobo

I didn't hate this as much as I did when it came out, but it's still about as exciting as the Brown Paper Bag orchestrated therein.

DnB can be exciting to listen to when driving, dancing, gaming, et cetera. It's a cornerstone dance genre and a good cultural export for the UK. Put it on for the background of a chatty party when you don't want any singalongs. It is a little strange (and less exciting) to sit down and actively listen for over an hour (over two hours if you listen to the second disc.) I respect the craft, but won't be on this journey again. If you give a shit about DJing you might get a big kick out of this. The more interesting stuff is on the second disc, which is a shame because it means fighting through an hour of often indistinguishable break beats to get to it. Highlights: New Forms, Hi-Potent, Trust Me

Un calvaire historique, la police n'interviendra qu'après 2h20 de tapage nocturne. La nuit de sommeil est par conséquent d'ores et déjà foutue.

This album strived to be "ad infinitum." It ended up be "ad nauseam." My wife's assessment of this album, as I played it on a Sunday morning performing chores around the house, was that the problem with this album is that it is an album. It's too long and repetitive. I agreed. If you isolated any single one of these tracks, it might be fine. The drums, the cymbals, the bass. Some was not half bad. However, the albums clocks in at nearly two and a half hours and features bad vocal tracks. For many of these ecteronica/ambient/EDM albums I've used the phrase "inoffensive and ambient." Something you can put on in the back ground and ignored, kinda like video game music that needs to be pleasant enough to listen to while you navigate your sprite through the World of Whatever. but also not fully formed enough to be distracting and can be looped endlessly. This one was ambient and slightly offensive. 1/5

The one thing I appreciate about this album is it helps me identify artists that I need to block on Spotify. It also helps me realize how the author of 1001 albums has incredibly bad taste. I have to admit I couldn’t listen to the whole five hours, equal to ten Beatles albums, so maybe there’s some hidden gem in there somewhere but I highly doubt it.

There is no universe or reality in which this is an essential album. It does nothing well and is not unique or memorable. 78 minutes of the same mediocre d&b beat over and over again. 1/5

A double album of drum and bass music...I'm five seconds in and can't stand it. It combines techno and British rappers? How could I not go for it? First impressions: this is going to be a looooong 1 star album. 23 songs and they are all super long. Over two hours of this? I'm ready to quit over this specific album at this point. There are ups and downs on this, and Digital is a down. The good news is that it is only 9 minutes long. The repetitiveness of this is mind numbing...which is interesting because I can only imagine listening to this when you're already high off your ass. Found sound! It feels like I've been listening to this for a week. I have listened to over an hour of this and have over an hour left...I am not sure I have the stamina for this. This is the alternate title music for Mad Men. RJD2 loves these guys. I am almost done with the first album...even if this was the end it would be awful, the fact that I have another hour is pushing this further and further down the list.

Really disappointing that THIS is our second to last album. So boring and I don't even understand how this would be fun to dance to. It has NO GROOVE! What an absolute waste of a slot.

Gave it a go and honestly just couldn’t get into it at all. After two tracks I was completely done. It just felt like a load of repetitive beats going nowhere, with nothing to really grab onto. Maybe it gets better later on, but the opening was such a slog I didn’t have the patience to stick it out. Just not my thing in the slightest — pretty awful from what I heard.

Can't believe this is on the list and not Mezzanine. Definitely not essential. 1/5

Absolutely diabolical. I dont mind this genre of music and I still couldn't get through all of it, i lasted about 5 songs (which is approximately 42 years).

Terrible. The worst beatboxing ever followed by a song that was literally morse code did make me laugh out loud though

God it’s just shit. I refuse to listen to any more

Maybe I'm just spoiled by Daft Punk or LCD Soundsystem-type stuff...or maybe I just don't know enough about Drum and Bass, but why does it feel like it never goes anywhere? 'Brown Paper Bag' didn't have to be nine minutes....I got the gist of it in the first three. Repeat this logic for the other tracks and you don't have a 100-minute slog. I'm writing this review whilst listening to track eight. If the next 14 tracks knock my socks off, I'll gladly contact admin so I can edit my review. 1.5 stars...rounding down because it's ever so long.

First album since I think Wonderful Rainbow that I just straight up did not finish. More like New Forms of torture.

I dont remember liking this as much as I did this time around. Great beats and addictive to work to.

It's a good thing I found out I had tomorrow off work to listen to over two hours of drum and bass, and I mean that most sincerely. The second disc I think is better than the first one, but both had some pretty great stuff on there like Brown Paper Bag, Digital, Mad Cat, Destination, Hi-Potent, Share The Fall, Down, Jazz, Hot Stuff were all really fun. One of the nice big surprises on the list for me along with Teardrop Explodes's album

Fire vibes for work and travel, really enjoying some of this English vibe beat stuff

Amazing drums. Love the double bass sound and the more atmospheric bits. Very much my music.

As a DnB fan, New Forms hits so many different bright spots, it's a wonderful example of the genre. Multiple big hits and classics and a great number of underrated tunes. With modern ears, maybe 2cds is too many, and maybe some tracks go on a bit too long. DnB has always been a single/mix based genre, but if you wajt an example it doesn't get much better than this. Realistically it's probably a 4 - it does go on a bit long - but I feel like that's a flaw of the genre rather than the album itself. You couldn't improve it without changing what it was designed to be,so a low 5.

I <3 dnb

That was wonderful thanks for the introduction!

amazing mixture of breakcore and black music

Better than Coldplay

I incorrectly thought the album art was TDR but it's Intro. London. Anyway this is a banger.

dobro 5

Es como si Prodigy, Frusciante, Porter Robinson, Propellerheads y Thundercat hicieron una orgía y de hijo salió Roni Size. Me encanta!!

люблю драм енд бейс)

I completely missed out on this due to being part of a subculture at the opposite musical spectrrum back then ... but this gives me the rare opportunity to discover gems like this 30 years after the fact. Slaps incredibly hard even by today's standards .... raw, minimalistic, sparse, punchy, dry, abstract, dark, moody, organic, brooding, meditative. The importance of the album is crystal clear right from the opening bars of "Railing" which is no plain intro but more of a "State Of The Union" meta-reflection on the movement and the genre. The cheekiness of the raps and the lyric matter immediately reminded me of Diamond D's "Stunts Blunts and Hip Hop" which is very comparable in its meta-reflective character. I'd argue that both tracks subconsciously reference the greatest meta song of all times, Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" ... with slight differences in emphasis: Stevie Wonder and Diamond D put the most stress on heritage and music's universalism, while Railing's main theme is innovation, being quite bold and self-confident that way - deservedly so!

Labai patiko, labai ramus ir geras bumčikas

REally fun, liked it a lot. SOOO many tracks

I love drum and bass done well. This was a fantastic listen. 5 stars.

Urbrittisk urban soulmusik och om inte breakbeatsen redan har fått dig att fatta det är den från Bristol. Den skulle inte kunna vara någonannanstan ifrån. Det är smattrat från regnet från irländska sjön med en fri funkig bas som botemedel. Här finns länkar tillbaka till stadens utpräglade soundsystem kultur, till Massive Attacks utveckling av trip hop och t.o.m. till ravescenens jungle. Men det är också en länk mot framtiden till 2 step, UK garage och grime. Tillsammans med Goldies Timeless är New forms det mest helgjutna och viktigaste albumet från dnb-åren. Här finns gott om riktiga kanonlåtar, det är inte bara ett sound som manifesteras. "Heroes", "Destination", "Brown paper bag", "Digital", "Share the fall", New forms" och "Watching windows' är alla toppklass. Det är inte ett utpräglat dansgolvsalster (i likhet med Timeless) utan tar snarare sikte på ett bargung, det är ju generellt svårt att dansa till dnb. Jazzen och hiphopen är tydliga ledstjärnor rakt igenom. Det ger albumet en enhetlighet, det är inte bara ett gäng fräcka tolvor som satts ihop till ett album, det är koncentrerat och genomtänkt. Det är lite långt men det blir trots allt ingen stor invändning, inte ens ett beatbox solo tynger ner den nämnvärt, det blir bara en fin blinkning till hiphop arvet. Det är ett fantastiskt album. Tack för påminnelsen. Balanserar mellan fyran och femman