New Forms

Banger

Really wanted to love this more - such an exciting sound and a great dynamic, but 139 minutes? The only thing on this last so far that has been able to sustain me over such a time length is Ella Fitzgerald. This would be a five-star album at half the length...

I had to bail on this because it's a two-hour drum and bass album where all the songs flow into each other, which, on one hand, does give it some neat consistency and, on the other hand, means every song sounds exactly the same. I'm not going to give it my usual "I bailed so 1 star" thing, because I don't think it's bad, but I just couldn't do two straight hours of drums and bass today. Look the clock tells me it's 3:30am. I needed to be asleep, man.

There were a couple cool jazz infused beat moments but they were few and far between. The raps/vocals suck and I know that isn't the point of drum and bass but sweet baby Jesus why even add them. This was incredibly boring and it all bled together at some point. The songs were too long the album is WAAAAAY too long. I hated this and can find no reason that this should be included in albums you must hear before you die. This is the most boring shit I have ever heard, I would need so much drugs and lights to find this remotely interesting. Is this really in the book or is this a fan submission?! It is so bad and I am only half way through, I am going to keep listening but this is really testing my resolve.

On one hand it was entirely too long and repetitive, on the other, after the hours passed it was like waking up after a long nap on a road trip, I had no idea where I was or how I got there. So to New Forms' credit it was smooth and decent enough so take me on the ride; I just don't want to go on it again.

Decent electronic tunes, just not my thing really.

This was a decent drum and bass style album, makes me remember that it's not the best of dance styles but not terrible

Really tame edm music.

Man, I like DnB but this was way too long. Finding an uninterrupted 2 hours to get through the original album was impossible. Killed a lot of my motivation and got me behind. There was some cool stuff but overall frustration really affected this one for me. 2/5

Fav: Mad Cat, Hi-Potent, Ballet Dance L: Digital, Heroes 3 Fluctuates between genius and brainlessness like a YouTube poop. I think there's a 5/5 album in here but it's buried in so much useless repetitive stuff. Nearly ever song overstays its welcome by like 50-66% and then the album is like 33-50% too long and that's the original track listing. It's kind of a shame to see the obvious potential of this lost in the lack of restraint where every piece and the whole builds something great and then makes you feel stupid for liking it because they just kept repeating the same objects. Cover: 2 Looks like the cover of a cd for business software Name: 2.5 Sure I guess Minecraft Parody: Black Ender Chest (Brown Paper Bag)

Seriously overstays its welcome. But some nice beats. Would be better if either half the songs were cut or the songs were half as long. W: brown paper bag L: 2.5/5

This is cool, but I prefer my dnb to have more interesting vocals.

Tedious. This sounded like it would be part of the soundtrack for a shitty knock off Guy Ritchie movie

Everything just sounded like a movie action sequence from 2000

hvad er det her

An all-around solid Drum N Bass album that obviously loses steam by the end, due to its runtime. Your enjoyment will almost completely depend on your enjoyment of the genre itself. Personally, I enjoy both. In this case, the beats are mostly solid and hold your attention. The vocals are subpar, but relatively sparse, so it's not a big issue. Overall, its influence alone is reason enough to place it on the list. Favourite track: Matter of Fact

At the end of the day, this album is just too repetitive. It is also too repetitive at the start of the day, but it is at the end of the day as well.

Some parts I enjoyed, but overall not for me

Very of its time. Maybe it's better if you're on MDMA? It's not bad, it's just very... there.

Not just drums, but drums AND bass!

Feels like a formative text of the genre

There's a kind of nostalgia here. Not that I am familiar with this album, I'm not. And it's not really that kind of nostalgia of a time you haven't lived, as I was a alive in 1997 but was only a kid. But I can't help to feel something about a simpler time, a better time. Maybe it was just me being a child back then, but it does really feel the world was better in the late 90's. Peak of Humanity even. Who knows... No stand out tracks here, just vibes.

I can see ONE of these tracks working in a very specific context. You'd hear it and think "wow this is retro and underground but upbeat...these people must be cool" but an extended listen is an entirely different experience. Cheap and hollow.

Lasted two “songs” - boring and shallow

Decent. Maybe this deserves a second spin. I found some of it to be energizing - most of the time super high tempo stuff doesnt rub me the right way. In the same league as Fat Boy Slim. Brown Paper Bag and Lets Get It On were solid

classic

Good album. For me it is best as background music, but I still enjoyed the listen. The drum beats are good and engaging.

I <3 dnb

Sorry don't get this at all. It's the same beat thru out the song on almost every song. How did this reach platinum. The best cuts are with the singer on them. Also entirely too many songs.

It's background music for doing something manic... I increased the playback speed of my work's compliance training videos to match this record today, so that was kinda fun. I was on the borderline of jungle psychosis by the end, so I don't think I can fully endorse this use.

Oh boy, another hour plus British electronic album!!!! I'm so glad there isn't 40 other albums on this list that sound exactly like this. Minus the length, I do think this is one of the better ones, but man, I am just so burnt out on this sound. The handful of French electronic albums on this list blow ALL of the British ones out of the water, and it isn't even close. Low 3.

Definitivamente, no estoy en mi drum-n-bass era :(

That was wonderful thanks for the introduction!

53 tracks, 2 hours... this is supposed to be my jam but there is no way this brings people into dnb. I guess this is progressive dnb and I'm sure the heads will be into the production but I just want some mainstream dancefloor dnb, sorry. on as background to pottering which was fine, wouldn't have wanted to actively listen (but how often do I do that anyway). ultimately I wanted to like it but got BORED.

A very cruel end to my happy four-star streak! Not my kind of electronic music – it doesn't do anything or go anywhere, and it all sounds the same. Every track is five to nine minutes of relentless bugger all. It's not unlistenable, but it is interminable. Just a rare kind of music that I struggle to see much point, appeal, talent, fun or beauty in. One disc was enough to drive me slowly simmering mad, so I skipped the other. It's an incredible act of debut hubris that there was ever a two-disc version with another hour of this. There's absolutely no need.

At first glance I thought the cover was a glitch in the 1001 system and the real cover couldn't be shown! Some tracks start off well like Heroes and Morse Code when I thought "oh great - not just incessant boring drumming on this one" but a few seconds in and I am proved wrong again. I could probably take some of this in very small measures but it was so repetitive, so repetitive, so repetitive, so repetitive, so repetitive, so repetitive, so repetitive, so repetitive... It seems the Mercury Prize judges don't always get it right then! I won't castigate them completely though because they have been instrumental in introducing me to some great music and I listened to the Small Changes album by Michael Kiwanuka after this. It was a great way to come down and join the real world again. What a contrast. I understand there are different types of music for different people in different moods but I cannot imagine myself being in the right mood ever to enjoy this output. I just yearned for some relief from these bloody drum machines. Sorry, Roni Size but good luck to you as you obviously had success with it. Unfortunately the only drug I ingest is a statin so perhaps that is why I couldn't appreciate this.

Right Ronnie - thanks for popping over... sure you need to head off to beat the traffic ...no? You can stay a bit longer .... great... (not my type of music unfortunately, far too long and pretty much unlistenable. Solidifies my view that the only benefit to the Mercury prize is to highlight crap records. Also deducting a star for upsetting my cat.)

Incredibly ‘90s, about eight times longer than it needs to be, but it’s fine, kinda floats on by without much fuss. It just makes me think of people ten years older than me on pills. Also, the drum n bass album that should actually be on this list is Saturnz Return by Goldie, but it won’t be, will it :/ (The album art is superb)

Never heard of, which shows my experiences of drum and bass as it’s a platinum album, and mercury award winner. As a form it seems to rely upon its repetitive nature to hypnosis you and draw you in. To lose yourself in its long circling tracks. It’s urban feeling of well whatever it is. If it doesn’t it’s a pile of grade A shit. The vocals, and that’s a loose term are literally most of the time just like someone speaking. Again just not my thing, let others like. But strengthens my view on the mercury prize and their panel, against my music tastes. I have heard it, so I at least now know what prime drum and bass is, so there is that. Won’t ever hear it again 1 Star

amazing mixture of breakcore and black music

Break the mold and never use again.

This is a good enough techno record. I really like the bass and how it sounds like it was played on an actual bass guitar rather than processed through a machine. That's a nice touch you don't find often in this type of music.

I feel like Drum and Bass falls into the category of music that is not necessarily meant to be consumed an entire album at a time. Eventually it just becomes relentless noise.

Man oh man, I've got a lot to say about New Forms and just how awful it is. Roni Size is often considered a pioneer in the drum and bass genre along with Goldie and LTJ Bukem and this album is also considered Reprazent's magnum opus which makes me dread what all their other stuff is gonna sound like if this is their best. This sounds like just a bunch of unfinished demos which were stretched out into 2 hours of 2 identical halves which made me think that only one of these halves should have been this album because i would have gotten more than enough of my fill from that. So, this album gets docked 2 stars for sounding like a bunch of unfinished demos, it gets docked another star for having an unnecessary second half and it gets docked another star for being 2 hours long. Best Song: Morse Code Worst Song: Change My Life

How tedious. I don't object to the basic D&B rhythms etc and if it was the first album to really do this I can hear how influential it must have been. But jesus those tracks are so long and repetitive.

I listened to the single disc version of the album, because it's bad enough I have to hear drums and base, but I cannot listen to drums and base for over two hours. I hate myself but not quite that much. This is certainly a lot of drums and bass, even if I didn't listen to the double disc set of these songs. The beats per minute never change on any of these songs. Heroes starts off slow, but like an addict who just needs that fix, the beats per minute are immediately ramped up to the same bpm that plays across this whole album. There was a low chance I was going to like bass and drums, yet I do like to go into an album with an open mind. My mind never became closed, but only because I was astounded the pace never really changed during the 80 minute listen. The only chance I would ever listen to this album again is if I am at a CIA black site either being interrogated or doing the interrogating. I would blare this music at top volume to get the information I need. Eventually, my subject would spill what I need to know. If I were being interrogated, I would break after two listens, not because this is terrible music, but because it. never. changes. pace. The songs are 6-8 minutes long and while the first couple of songs were not so bad, it became very repetitive after a while. I am not surprised this album won the Mercury Prize, because I am starting to realize the British have bad taste in electronica. It beat out OK Computer and Coming Up (by Suede) for the prize. That's all I have to say about that.

Trummor och bas. Skivan känns för lång. Repeterande musik. Inte min kopp te. Brown Paper Bag bäst trots 9 minuter.

So, this album had the misfortune of coming right after a much more interesting drum and bass album yesterday ("OK" by Talvin Singh), and I can't avoid that coloring my opinion of this album. "New Forms" commits the cardinal sin of being just kind of boring. There's not a lot here but things that are done over and over on other albums. This may be a bit ahead of the curve - it did release in 1997, and I'm not sure exactly what the electronica scene looked like back then. I don't think it is going to change my opinion much if I look back at other albums, and "OK" released in 1998 so these two are pretty much contemporary. This album does not feel original, and so it does not seem to be essential listening to me. Another issue I take with this album is that it is way too long. I'm fine with some of the longer tracks, because I do think they evolve in interesting ways across their runtimes, but the runtime of the album as a whole is grueling. I generally enjoy this style of electronic music and even so I was tired of listening to this album by about halfway through. Add to that some rather dated vocals and we have an album that I don't much care for and that I don't think deserves to be anywhere near this list. There is a lot of newer electronic music that could be here instead of this album, music which has stood the test of time much better and is more deserving of recognition. Maybe I would feel differently if I heard it at a rave, but I've also never been to a rave so who knows if I would even enjoy that experience. Favorite track: "Brown Paper Bag"

There are genres that are just like the opposite of musical to me. This is one of them. Couldn't be bothered with it.

Schizo music

Better than Coldplay

It was fine, nothing that special but had enough interesting elements in the tracks for me to finish it

I did not enjoy this much at all. 69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields gets a bad rap from this list, but I would argue at 2 hours 20 minutes this is a much harder listen, it's certainly more repetitive. The length of 69 Love Songs is part of the experience, here this seems like Roni Size had produced 2 hours and 20 minutes of music and he was going to release it all. If this had been half or even a third the length I might have given two stars out of five for my personal enjoyment, but this is an endurance test, like being trapped in a metal bin for hours while a drummer practices on it. I found the sounds surprisingly low energy - a bit trip hop and flat and toneless. The tracks lurched from sample to sample and the vocal samples and even original vocals were not well integrated into beats. Heroes was where I finally snapped. If this had been a third of the length, with the best third of the songs chosen, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I don't dispute that this should be on the list, though. Everyone saying this is not important or influential can get out of here - D&D needs some representation on this list which is otherwise completely oversaturated by bands which are fours white guys with two guitars, a bass, and some drums. I didn't enjoy this listening experience but it was edifying. More offbeat stuff, please.

Weirdly experimental. A few cool things on there, but gave musicology vibes.

New Forms... but of what I ask you?! I never got into this at the time and whilst I can listen to it now and think it's ok background music, I don't really get why it was so popular at the time. All sounds very much similar to me which is not what you want from a 140 minute album! I prefer the Me & You cover of Brow Paper Bag, which I'm mentioning purely so I can mention the brilliant Tru Thoughts label: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tgR74Ab99c

Been a good few two hour drum and bass or techno albums on this list, appropriate if you're off your nut at a clubs not so much made for the commute. My last two days have been solely soundtracked by Roni, been a bit odd. Musically I tend to like the first minute of a drum and bass track but it's never designed to build or change, tends to plod along and then end. And this was the case here, a lot of decent ideas, nice repetition, and then apart from a few bells and whistles no change. So can't say I enjoyed but with a shorter run time and better structure I might have done. 2.5.

I would give this an automatic 1, "not my kind of music" and it is a very long, boring version of "not my kind of music". But it must be here for a reason - I'll save my judgement and listen. Well then. It is all builds without payoff. New Forms, I like the vibe, mellow, bass notes on the keyboard, get the drums working up and fast, and then - changes into eerie restaurant bathroom music - and then it ends. Let's Get It On is such boring drum and bass, then moving back through the pretentious restaurant toilet. The songs with vocals are pretty poor too, the singer(s?) don't sound remotely engaged, topics are half-baked. Matter of Fact starts well with the random drumming, loads of different and interesting patterns, and then - GET BACK IN THE BATHROOM.

Didn't mind this in the background.... Not sure it's list worthy. Probably right time and place type thing but doubt I'll be back. Think I recognised a couple though. I remember a track with Roni Size and Zach de la Rocha which was good back in the day

Over two hours of this?! Punishing.

Listened before?: never. i've put this off for nearly a month since it generated as my album of the day, mainly cuz this album is over an hour long and i don't always have time for that. i know the longer i put this off the harder it'll be to get through this album list, so i guess i'd better bite the bullet. rating will be based on the original track listing, as per usual. spotify must be on crack if they think i'm gonna listen to 5.5 hours of bonus bullshit Railing - 4/5 Brown Paper Bag - 3/5 New Forms - 4/5 Lets Get It On - 2/5 Digital - 4/5 Matter of Fact - 2/5 Mad Cat - 2/5 Heroes - 3/5 Share the Fall (Full Vocal Mix) - 2/5 Watching Windows - 3/5 Beatbox - no rating Morse Code - 1/5 (is that hentai moaning??) Destination - 3/5 Average score: 2.6/5 ⭐️⭐️ damn that took a while to get through it's decent drum n bass i guess. it lost just about all my interest towards the last half of the album though. much like others have said, this is far from essential listening unless you're someone with a deep appreciation for DJ-ing or the D&B genre itself. i am not one of those people so my appreciation for this sound is very limited

Maybe they should have stuck with the old forms ...

A little light dnb…not bad not great

General thoughts: First impression was What the fuck is this? 15s in, was, wait, this actually sounds good; 5m in, ok, this is shit. Yeah, the opener was decent, but the rest is more of the same, with little to no variety, and it basically feels like hell. The songs are too long, and I don’t hate loops, but most weren't even good to begin with, along with uninteresting harmony layers. There's a certain public to this, and I'm not part of it. There's also a certain scenario to like this, and this list shouldn't be it. So again, as many times during this journey, I wonder what the curator’s definition of good is, or even the definition of ‘album’. Per Wikipedia, the original release is the 2h20m version, which is insane. There are a fuckton of releases, shorter and longer, and I'm genuinelly dumbfounded how there's a target that thinks this album is remotely good. Usually I listen to each album 5+ times before reviewing, but this time I surrender; don't make me do this again, please. Compliments, mmm, the continous flow was kind of neat, and reminds me of The Sims music in GBA, which was a bit nostalgic. Also, and this is a genuine reverse uno card. I’m thinking if this were an OST album, my appreciation would change a lot. Still not enough to be on this list, though. If I had to sum it up, I'd say this album sins vanity. Too much time, not much to say or express, but still wants to be in the spotlight. Miraculously, it wasn't a one-star (1), probably because I couldn't make myself listen to it on a single run as I usually do. Outstanding song(s): Railing Weakest song(s): A lot of half-star tracks, but let's stick with the title track, 'New Forms' Cover: Fittingly horrendous Real rating: 1.59

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

Drum and bass just does not do it for me, it’s too repetitive of ideas that to me were never interesting in the first place and 78 minutes is way too long

Never listened. Expectations: None - Verdict: Not For Me - The opener feels generic and I'm not a fan of the vocals. Brown Paper Bag is a big switch up that is much more interesting and it slightly recontextualises the opener. I find the sound gets a tad boring after a while even on the longer more expansive tracks. At the end I found that it was a very long album to sit through for very little reward.

Sometimes quite o.k. in terms of background- music. But way too long and too repetitive. 1,5

An essential album? Probably not. But it's right up my alley. I've loved the Kruder Long Loose Bossa Edit of "Heroes" for years now. This is a jungle/DnB album that lengthens things out and utilizes silence and repetition to create a sense of space, like the halfway point of "Brown Paper Bag". So I get it if this is all too much of an ask for most. This thing is LONG long just as a base album, the 20th anniversary edition is pushing it. I adore the bendy upright bass sound, i'm not sure if that's a synth or the real deal. It's a central figure in songs like "Mad Cat" and "Watching Windows". It’s also got to be the biggest reason this project gets labeled as jungle with some jazz fusion. 4/5 because it's my rating and I get to do what I want in this awesome free world

Jesus, OK, I'll release the hostages...

I didn’t listen to Roni Size back then, but this really scratches an itch for 90s nostalgia and whatever it was they were putting in the water in Bristol. The breakbeats are thrilling and propulsive and they’re balanced by soulful vocals and upright jazz bass. It feels like a throwback to a time when technology felt new and exciting instead of dystopian and dread-inducing. It’s a bit of an onslaught at two discs, but this is going into regular rotation for me.

I had this CD in college, it was boring then... still boring.

Better than others of this ilk but still repetitive and did not hold my interest.

Just looking at the album cover I knew I was in for some Drum & Bass, but not the good Drum & Bass like Lightning Bolt (You know a band with just a drummer and base player), but that English Drum & Bass. I don't really dislike Drum & Bass but I really only like it when there are vocals. The "let's make as high of a a BPM song as possible" tracks on here is not worth it. Some the tracks just go on too long and I'm not even close to being done with the original albums first side. Let's talk about that too, you don't need 2 CD's worth of this shit. Too long songs, too many tracks (Fuck they put out a 20th anniversary that was 53 tracks). Drum & Bass like this is just not good enough to hold my attention for very long especially when I have to listen to the same fucking high hat fill on EVERY FUCKING TRACK.

389/1089 this album art, title and artist name def have me intrigued okay so it’s kinda 90s/00s whump whump rappy garage??? i’m here for that it went on a bit too much and didn’t have as much variation as i would’ve liked but it was a vibe still. and i can see the way it likely influenced some of my 21st century faves. Morse Code was absolutely the stand out imo faves: Morse Code, New Forms, Heroes 56/100

nope

Almost considered 2 stars, but no.

Best Tracks: Heroes, Brown Paper Bag, Share The Fall,

Dober

"Do you think you can hold on when the beat gets too strong" Thankfully this record will never test for that. It's just really shit drum and bass, and I think most drum and bass is shit.

Hey, Marshall, You up for some super loud, repetitive music that hasn't changed since the mid-90s? Ted Mosby Architect

Drum n Bass was huge in the 2000s. Not my thing but it was interesting to listen to. I think the song 'New Forms' was great.

‘Brown Paper Bag’ is a good song with an infectious hook, but man it’s long. Over lon songs are clearly this album’s thing and only serve to make it migraine inciting. Even the more chill moments like ‘heroes’ just grated on me, but in general (despite owning a different Roni Size album) this isnt my sort of music.

I need a medal, a Nobel Peace Prize, and a Blue Peter badge for persevering through every one of those horrid 139mins. This might take the biscuit for the worst thing I have ever heard. I felt like I was in that episode of Father Ted, where Father Stack plays jungle music all night, and drives Ted and Dougal to the brink of insanity. Except I actually did go insane.

I often get really annoyed by the (seemingly mostly) Americans complaining about a British bias on the 1001 Albums list written by a British author for a British market, given how so much media is US centric.... and then the generator links to a Bristolian 5 hour 14 minute drum and bass album from the 90s and I think "yep, fair enough". 1/5

This was a bit of a crazy and eclectic albums that I've listened to in a while. Cool beats that reminded me of the underground industrial scene of the mid to late 90's.

Bara låten heroes som va helt ok. Resten skit

Wow, this album, apparently a big seller in the UK, made nary a ripple across the pond here in America. It's an upbeat, muscular form of electronica that still seems to be influencing that particular subgenre today. I found it to be a decent listen, but far too long to be in any way memorable. I have some serious questions about whether I really needed to hear it before I die, but listening to it didn't kill me, so maybe it made me stronger?

first entry right up my alley but STILL, it lacked the connection i needed, which i fear might always be the case for any album i will hear once or twice and then have to elaborate my thoughts within a day or two. this was useful, because this sort of musics energizes me and makes me lock tf in, can't really explain why, it just itches a part of my brain. for that, the length come in pretty handy because you can just work and get lost in time and the music, but on the otherside, there's just too much content for too few highlights. what i can think of right now is that most of the vocals are obsolete and would be better off gone, that "brown paper bag" is pretty recognizable and sounds like a classic, and i was sure "let's get it on" sampled the mario underground ost. overall, i enjoyed disc 1 better.

How is this album essential listening? I'm not even saying its bad, I just don't understand how it made the list of albums you MUST hear before you die. Drum and bass is such a niche genre, and the songs on New Forms, to me at least, all share the same backing beat. I'm sure there are people out there for whom this album is amazing. I'm not one of them. The same backbeat from track to track just makes it seem like one never ending song, to its detriment.

1,5

Cool album, it’s weird but I like it. I’d bump ts at the club

It’s soooo weird bro and too long

Great Club Music. Not so great sit down at home listen. 2.5/5 rounded up to a 3.

J dilla with no soul

Just… so long….

In the liner notes of one of the reissues of this album, there is one highlighted quote: "We all have been working hard for this." It made me stop in my tracks. If you're like me, born before the turn of the millennium, you have probably heard this bullshit-y phrase, "I prefer my music handmade," more than a bazillion times. I hate it when people came up with this nonsense. Of course, creating electronic music is a different artistic practice from, let's say, the way Deep Purple write their songs. So what… "handmade" music as opposed to electronic music has always been always a pointless couplet (the resurgence of AI-generated content changes that, but of course, this applies to any genre). What I liked about the quote is that it outwardly denounces the notion that electronic music somehow creates itself or is created by machines and whatnot; like every piece of great art, a lot of work has gone into this. And you can tell.

Pepperoni nipples

This is #day724 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… as I must have mentioned before under another drum 'n' bass record, the genre largely passed me by back in the day. This record has its moments, though. I like its creeping darkness, and the jazzy touches always appeal to me. It doesn't deserve the hate it gets in many of the reviews on this site. The 139:54 runtime is merciless, though. Otherwise, this is a 3 out of 5. Looking forward to #day725.

Electronica, 92eme album =>1/5 Je n'ai pas passé la barre des 10 mn, aucune chance que j'arrive à la fin (140 mn !!!). Terriblement répétitif, sans aucun intérêt pour moi.

Drum and bass. Was actually fine but still.

Mangler revidering

I like the electronic music of this era, but this specific kind of drum and bass is so boring and tedious to listen to. Begrudgingly sat through it all.

Waaay too repetitive. May be good in some clothing store. A couple beats were ok, but….2.5

Let's talk about double albums (this one is arguably a triple). Some are understandable - not excusable or a good idea, just understandable. George Harrison's solo debut comes to mind. The man must have been on the brink of insanity near the end of the Beatles. So, we can understand his desire to release a double album. However, had he cut that album in half, he may have had the best solo career of the Beatles. Most double albums are from a pretentious and mediocre band that gets in a studio (usually for the first time in their lives) and just blows their wad all over. No direction. No purpose. No message. Just volume (mass, not sound, but sometimes both). These are the bulk of the dozen or more doubles on this project. Some are the product of every song being about twice as long as necessary. This is what we have here. We don’t need the Ramones’ approach every time, but we also shouldn’t go to the opposite extreme. I’m pretty sure that Brown Paper Bag song is still going on. And on. And on. . . . Then you have the precious few justifiable double albums. Songs in the Key of Life and Physical Graffiti are the only two that come to mind. Stevie was clowning the world; Songs was his EIGHTEENTH album. I swear he made it a double just to prove he could write that many good songs. Graffiti is probably the worst Led Zep album, but they covered so many different genres of music that you just had to listen to the whole thing. Oh yeah, this album. Well, I now believe that 1,001 Albums is in itself a double album. 500 or even 101 albums is probably all you have to listen to before you die. This album is just filler to get you to 1,001.

This kind of music was briefly popular for a reason.

Not at all something I'd listen to, think I put in forty minutes but tapped out.

Overall I like the vibe. There are some great beats, and some nice change ups within tracks. But most songs are too long for me. Was it innovative? I don't hear much I haven't heard before, and at the time of distribution I don't think this was new territory.

again new newness very different, big freQuency drum-n-bass energy it's ok, just very samey and not really my thing good background noise but that's not music lol glad i opted for just disc 1 and not the whole 5 hours 😓

😐

This is so long. But I enjoyed it. This sort of chiller drum and bass is more my vibe than jump up. But I did get a bit bored by the end

This must've sounded like the future when it came out. I enjoyed it, but it's runtime feels excessive to me. I didn't need the 'Share the Fall' reprise and I would've liked more variation in the instrumentals. Feels like it sets the template for the form and has smoothed off the rough edges of jungle, probably for the worse. There is some good tracks in here, but the sheer volume of music makes you feel like you can't distinguish between songs you like and ones you're just tolerating. I Don't think it really holds a candle to Logical Progression by LTJ Bukem for me in this space of more 'intelligent', lounge-style drum and bass.

Kinda neat, didn't need to be 1hr20mins long.

Electronic, not terribly interesting

Molly called, asked if she left her spleen in the fridge last night. I asked around, but the walls stopped talking this morning, and the fridge is still puking in the shower. Dope! Be over in 5!

Колбаса колбасит соло

Is this on the list just to make people like me angry? Bang bang whap whap beep beep buzz = garbage. I could NOT listen to the whole thing, so there's a teeny tiny chance it redeems itself, but I would vote hard that it doesn't.

An unremarkable snooze fest.

This album was a slog to get through. Way too repetitive

This was actually sick, definitely up there with the best of my new discoveries on this list

Nope

Here's another surprising one: a DNB album that won the Mercury Prize! That's probably something that won't ever be seen again, because electronic music is rarely given the time of day at stuffy, pompous award shows like those. What's a little less surprising is that the Mercury Prize would go out to an electronic album as ordinary and conservative as this. You won't find any drastic innovations in any of the 78 minutes that make up this album. And with a genre as samey as DNB, whose small intricacies are key to keeping the genre fresh and relevant, this release really feels like a slog by the time you're halfway through it. So much of it is the same old same old - the sped-up Amen Break combined with whatever minimalist trip-hop instrumental they could fine, with a distorted voice or 2 thrown in for good measure. There are a few highlights but this album will generally feel in one ear out the other. It doesn't help that the songs are mostly 3 minutes too long; it's clear they were trying to capture that dancefloor feel, but the songs are too jazzy and subdued to really work as backing tracks for a strobe lights and glowsticks rave. That's not to say the album is all bad, as there's at least a couple of noteworthy pieces on here. Most of them are in the first half though, and you'll be waiting a while to catch some memorable moments for the rest of this already overlong album. All I can say is the inclusion of Mercury Prize winners no one remembers speaks a lot of the UK-centric bias this list can have at times. It's not always there, but it's kind of glaring when it is...It's the musical equivalent of putting every Best Picture winner in a list of seminal movies: some of them just aren't as great as they were at the time.

It's hard to find a use for this album. It's a bit too boring to just sit and listen to, irritating while running, and demands too much attention when you're trying to focus on something. Spotify has a 5-hour 20th Anniversary Edition of New Forms, but I listened to the first two hours or so. That was more than enough.

This shit is always cool for a song or two, then it drives me crazy.

Disappointing. I remember the hype around this album and it winning the mercury music prize, back when that seemed like a true accolade. It was a bit messy & disjointed

Love me some Roni Size though In The Mode is a better album

Kind of hated this at first then I started to vibe with it a little. Needs more Bahamadia. Disclosure: I listened to the single disc "cassette version." It's an hour and goddamn twenty minutes already, I'm not doubling that.

Listening session: july 20th, while chilling at home Listened to before: no Thoughts: some beats were okay, but this is definitely not something special that belongs on the list in my opinion Favourite track: New Forms

Waiting impatiently in a liminal space type beat. Beats are fucking fire

I looove DnB but unfortunately there’s nothing about this that excites me. It’s adequate, but just doesn’t have much substance or special characteristics that make it stand out from the millions of DnB tracks out there.

Honestly pretty fuckin cool man. Yes it's long, but also that's the point of music like this. For the most part it's pretty generic, but the tracks with double bass really hit different. Fantastic vibes. Good album to put on and zone out to under a tree. Fave tracks: - Brown Paper Bag - New Forms - Mad Cat - Watching Windows - Hi-Potent - Jazz - Ballet Dance

This is garbage. In no way does it belong on any list of good music that someone should hear.

Þetta er allt of langt, næstum 130 mínútur, og mörg lögin hefði mátt stytta um tvo þriðju mér að meinalausu. En vitiði, á dauða mínum átti ég von heldur en að ég kynni að meta Drum and bass plötu. Hér er margt skemmtilegt, þrátt fyrir allt. Sumt nær engu flugi, en ég hendi samt þrist á gripinn.

Not for me. Two stars…

3.5

1 idea strung out over more than an hour. I was really bored by about the 2nd track, but I persisted to at least do the whole 1CD version. If you think I’m doing the whole 2 CDs, you’ve got rocks in your head.

Yeah ok. But nah.

Туц туц туц

Wow. Haters. Well. I loved it. I only listened to THE album, though, which is too long, not the 5 hour re-release, which is… not called for. But THE album, though uneven, was a totally unexpected gem. The reason I am here. Bring on the beats. 4 Boolean: True. True. Sorry, it may be “niche,” but I think a person should have the opportunity to hear it before they die. Certainly better than The Sonics

The Chinese Water Torture of music. I think if this was a backdrop to something interesting like tooling around a city in a Steampunk or Cyberpunk game it would be OK because it's not in the limelight. However, on it's own, it gets exposed to its own monotony.

My life was not meaningfully changed by this album.

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.

Not my style

I'm not fond of dnb, but some tracks kill it nicely

Drum and bass and drum and bass and drum and bass. I cannot believe Reprezent exists or that they chose to spell their name that way.

Immense

Bad form

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

Drum n bass n a bit boring.

Disc one and two are the original album. That’s what I listened to. It’s still a mammoth of an album at 140+ minutes but it surprisingly did not grow stale. I mean Jazz is near the end of the album and is one of the best tracks. I stilll think they could have made this into two albums, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I rather enjoyed this – it was absolutely not what I expected and surprised me throughout. Sure, it's a bit long, although I think I probably listened to a slightly cut down version which helped. But it wasn't anywhere near as repetitive or relentless as I was expecting.

Perfect music for the subway.

bonk

This would've been better if every one was 2-3 minutes shorter. Great for having on in the background while working though.

I had this on cd when it came out and listened to it a lot! It holds up and is my perfect music for concentrating.

now this is what im talkin about..... over 2 hours of fuckin solid drum & bass. im not sure what to say about it honestly, it's just some really good drum & bass, and plenty of it. "beatbox", "trust me" and the title track are the stand out tracks to me, but it's all good. ideal sounds for the like, 4th heatwave we're having this year, my only real complaint about it is that at 2 hours and 20 minutes long it does eventually start to get a little samey, so i have trouble locking onto it fully. it could benefit from being a little more concise imo, and as it happens, 11 years after this album dropped they released a reworked version, "new forms²”, which drops a bunch of tracks, adds a few new ones, and trims the rest down for a much more refined experience. highly recommend checking that out instead if the original length is too much for u, until now was the only version of new forms i'd ever heard. its not what i'd have chosen for d&b rep on the list, but it's a good pick all the same. only reason i'm not giving it a 5 is the 2008 rework i mentioned being imo an objectively better version of the same thing. its unfortunate that the book came out before then.....

big ass electronica album of course i love it

Soundtrack music to every PlayStation game. Inherently nothing wrong with this, but would never listen to this except as a gag.

I don't like Drum and Bass, but some of this wasn't terrible -- basically the rapping at the beginning.

Slow and a bit bland. This era of dance music isn't for me

Sound of the 90's

More mindless techno

I would've been fine if it wasn't 2+ hours long with some songs reaching 9 minutes in lenght. For some other music genres this wouldn't be an issue, but listening to drum'n'bass for so long just gives me anxiety. and even if we look over the fact that this is an anxiety inducing album, it has some great moments but most of it is just kinda okay.

eh its fine

I have to imagine that these guys achieved what they were going for, although it is not for me. I enjoy the sound of this album, but I think each song is too long and the vocalists don't do anything for me. As an album, I cannot see myself returning to it, especially due to its length.

Honestly, I was dreading this when I saw how long it was. But I'm committed to this project, so I put it on while I was doing things around my house.The music was not bad, but it was repetitive. I would say it would be good to listen to for a long night of dancing at the club. It also has a good atmospheric quality, so it does make decent background music. However, I have to rate it lower just bc of the length and repetition. I know I won't revisit it.

Heard bone-crushingly loud at 2AM, covered in other people's sweat, this may well be a life-changing record. As a headphone listen, it's just a waste of everyone's time.

Had this on in the background and found it pleasant enough. Occasionally something about it would catch my attention. Not great but fairly good of its type.

A pretty boring collection of drum and bass tracks that, if played in a nightclub, would make me turn to my mates and say, "smoking area?"

A bit dated, but good.

not my thing at allll

More of an objective review, because I can hear the quality and am aware of the impact. It did drag a bit just to listen to at home, though.

A 22 song album does not need multiple songs with a 9 minute run time. Nor should the majority of tracks be over the 6 minute mark. Nor should any dance track be longer than 3 minutes given most of them feature roughly 30 seconds of content. Dance music is inherently repetitive and is therefore a difficult genre to judge on album merits. This entire album could be condensed into 10 minutes and the experience would be the same, likely better. But at least this has a sense of novelty and energy. They're reaching. And it is something you can dance to, albeit only when of questionable intelligence and/or in a severely compromised state of inebriation/face-chewing.

Oh dear, how dull! While I can appreciate drum and bass as an influence or sound effect every now and again, the 'pure form' of the genre makes absolutely no sense to me. It's just over two hours of frantic beats accompanied by a bassline and some vocals. That's it. Utterly boring. This album may have been groundbreaking for the drum and bass genre, but from today's perspective, the seemingly hedonistic reduction to pure dance rhythms just doesn't hold my attention.

I thought I was in for a slog after the first track, but I actually didn't mind this. It was decent background music. I don't think I'll ever come back to it as this isn't a genre that I understand enough to appreciate, but I didn't hate it and that surprised me.

I’m giving it this rating without having listened to it purely out of spite. The only version available on most major streaming platforms being an anniversary edition with a 5 hour 15 minute runtime is simply disrespectful to my time. I’m sure this is a fine album and has held major influence over other artists in the electronic music scene but I cannot listen to this and be unbiased in my review given the egregiously long run time.

After a while I thought I was just listening to the same song for 50 minutes.

I dug it!

I would really like to know what it is about this that warrants being on a list of 1001 albums you MUST listen to before you DIE. I'm sure someone working with samples has sampled these samples, yay. This is about as 2.5 as 2.5 can get.

É O GARAGE

2,7 Highlights: Heroes, Watching Windows

Arrancamos el miércoles con un género del que ha aparecido algún que otro género en éste disco. Me parece un género que va bien para algo repetitivo como una rutina en un gimnasio. Algunas canciones, quizás para una situación íntima. De a momentos se me hizo un poco monotemático, debo decir. Hasta mañana, gente

Ronnie Size was the name of Len Houmous’ 2nd wife. 1.8 2/25 Brown Paper Bag

I still don’t know electronica well enough to say if this is any good. But I know I still don’t love electronica. Didn’t hate this one, so that’s a plus.

There is no standout song here that would get airplay over the others, which might sound like a compliment, except that there is not a single song here that ought to be listened to over someone else’s work. Inherently, this is a two, but the 140 minute run drops it to the lowest possible mark.

Chill 90s trip-hoppy electronica

this was super interesting - different from lots that i usually listen to. i enjoyed! very long

5/10 Didnt really like it

This is a long ass album to be nothing but electronic drums and base. Got the gist after the first 3 hours. And i still don't get the hype.

Albums like this make me wish there was a ten point rating scale. It’s not something I would necessarily choose to listen to but I can appreciate it in small doses. There is much more complexity than it initially seems. It’s a 3.5 but I’m rounding up due to all the luddites getting their knickers in a twist

dobro 5

Sure it's repetitive, but the man's got kids to feed. (Maybe, I don't know if he has kids.) 4/5

Sånn her musikk passer best når man spiller Wipeout på PS1, ellers blir det fort langdrygt og repetitivt.

Skjønner bare ikke hva denne platen vil meg. Fungerte sikkert kjempebra på et Rave i Luton 97.

Absolutt solide greier, fine rytmer og spenstige beats - men det blir fort kjedelig.

not for me

Totally new experience for me, definitely not my usual listening experience. Giving this a 3 for now. I liked it and I could see it growing on me more.

I don't really need to hear this again. It's not like it's terrible music....it's fine as background music for a live stream or something... but I feel like I've heard much more interesting versions of this kinda thing.

I can’t do it. I’m sorry. I can’t do 2 hours and 20 minutes of this. The first disc actually isn’t terrible, but it drones on quite often, and this would probably get a higher rating from me if it was only the first disc. Alas there’s more than an hour of music left, and I just can’t. One of my very few did not finish.

I like Drum 'N' Bass, I even like Roni Size and Reprazent, but an entire double album is far too much. Like every double album ever, this would be better as a more curated single disc, and even then Drum 'N' Bass isn't a musical genre that lends itself to an entire album, it's just exhausting to listen to. Plus, the ideal situation to listen to this is at a club in the late 90s while ripped off your tits on Special Brew or something more illicit.

I didn't hate it but fuck, it just drags so much. Way too long. The man who wrote this list is obviously a Brit who was a teen/young adult in the 90s. Respect for tying his choices to a time and place but I never want to listen to this meandering double album again. Spotify has even more on there, five hours or more. Kill me.

Nope

Difficult to listen to

Yeah no

Just weird

Boring/annoying/bad rappers. But gives frutier aqua a little bit....

Duly noted: Drum and Bass is a thing. These works are not albums in the Album Era Sense, they are catalogs of tracks where more is always more. How about an album of a proper 60' set? A little DnB goes a long way, and this much DnB doesn’t really go anywhere. :( I've now finished the subset of records with 'roni' in their artist/titles: Synchronicity, The Chronic, and this.

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.

Not my style at all

I just couldn't on this one. I tried for a good 4-5 songs, but it just was meh. Maybe I'll come back to it.

So I didnt hate this, but, its too much techno for me. I did hear a lot of late 90s electronica sounds. A lot of it reminded of the soundtrack to the matrix, which is where most of my late 90s techno experience comes from.

Honestly as background noise this isn’t terrible or anything, it’s just absolutely punishing in its length. 140 minutes of more or less the same thing, with minimal variation, is a tough sell even if you love a genre, and I do not love drum and bass. If this is what new forms sound like I’m happy to settle for the old ones.

Not as bad as I thought, and I can appreciate the music style, just truly not as a sit down and listen to it as an album sort of thing. Thankfully Spotify only had about 85% of CD1 and I stopped there. Fine stuff but not best suited to the album format, in a conventional sense at least (best listened to as a mix)

pretty cool! maybe a little overlong but i was able to get into it.

7/10 (dropped from 4 to 3, relisten)

3.5/10 Why is it so long :'(

A not unpleasant drum n bass album, but not one of what I consider to be the essential Drum N' Bass albums from that era.. This one is a tad boring and one dimensional. I prefer either Meat Beat Manifesto's 99% or ORIGINAL FIRE (1997), or Plaid's PEEL SESSION (1998).

Awful just noise

Liked this a lot!!

It’s like dance or house music, but without any good riffs to make it interesting. Not fully 1 star, but definitely not for me.

This is 5/5 any day as long as that day you're pilled up out of your mind in Magaluf

I went to a swingers club once and I can say from personal experience that it's the only place in the world where that kind of music is acceptable, because you'll be too busy fucking strangers to care how bad the music is.

I had a hard time paying attention to it at first, but I eventually got into the groove around halfway through with . "Ballet Dance" is interesting, and I am drawn to “Change My Life” and “Share the Fall.”

Actually pretty fun but good fucking god is this motherfucker interminable, both in track count AND track length, like there are 20 tracks AND they all run 6 minutes (where they basically sound the same for the duration of any given track)

Not my thing. I can see why people would like it but it’s not something I’d listen to again.

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

The line "something you've never heard before" followed by some basic drumming and synth work really set the vibe for this listen. It's not that it is incompetent or not alright to listen to, but it's so disposable feeling. Maybe that's part of the appeal but in six months I could hear this again and be perfectly convinced I've never heard it and it sounds the same as 1,000 other drum and bass acts.

I had always heard about drum and bass and it's importance to British music. If this is an important album maybe it will help me understand. 3 tracks in I've lost all sense of time. I'm in a prison, a sound is pecking at my brain. I'm trying to escape my consciousness to a place without drums and bass. Track 5. A voice, a voice I don't want to hear. I might start to cry. Matter of Fact feels like a welcome escape. I took the garbage out, the sun washed over me. I'm reminded that I am in a different prison. The drums have returned. Will listening to this reprogram my brain? I'm scared, but maybe I won't know any better after this. Are those bongos? They are frightening. A cellmate has started to imitate the drums, or is this me? On and on and on a rhythm that my heart cannot comprehend. If I hadn't lost all sense of time back on track 3 I would be able to process the silence after the album better. I'm worried the beats might come back. I need time.

Not bad.

Pretty cool album. I like listening to drum and bass occasionally and the tracks here were really unique. Digital, Heroes, and Morse Code were my favorites. Nice listen. 7.0/10

Nono off per me

a little long winded but you know what hell yeah

None of the songs really make me feel like I wanted to listen until the end. hard meh

It was very 90’s and unremarkable

The 20th anniversary edition of this album is 5 hours. That's about 4h58m too long

I remember messing around with Fruity Loops, rather poorly, around this time when I was a teenager. I never once thought anything I had put together was good enough for others to hear, let alone delusional enough to think it was worth consideration for some sort of prize. Well now that I have heard this maybe I should have had more confidence in myself. That said.. this whole record feels very masturbatory and is another example of why the 1001 book probably needed another editor.

Why? 1.

Personal enjoyment: 2/5 Relevance to this list: 4/5

Fitting our second to last album is one of these. Way too long and uninteresting.

Why? This is terrible.

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.

Well the best that can be said for this is that it was a passive background to my long run. There’s nothing great here. After five minutes you’ve heard everything it has, but on and on and it goes.

Bin im DnB nicht so bewandert. Ist das für das Genre ein wichtiges Album? Bei mir bleibt da nix hängen.

Anfangs war ich schwer unbegeistert, da ich es als sehr monoton wahrgenommen habe. Zum Ende hin und beim zweiten durchlauf war es dann doch ganz gut hörbar.

Kannte erst nur "Brown Paper Bag" . War mir erst sicher, dass das zu lang sein wird, hat mich aber bis zuletzt bei der Stange gehalten. Toll produziert, für mich eine Neuentdeckung.

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.

I liked the aggressive drum beats. But they did become grating over time.

Could have been worse. Wayyyy too long

Ooof, I actually liked it for a little while, but then realized it was mostly just distraction free background music, but then realized how long the album was, but then realized how repetitive the album was, but then....

Hahaha drum n bass altså

I liked at least some of every single track, but also every song just rode out too long. Made me nostalgic for driving around the rainy streets of Liberty City in GTA 3, 2.5 rounded up for that reason.

Little too long

Very challenging listen and not for everyone, but if it's up your alley it's worth it. Some of the baselines here are incredibly infectious.

Most of it is just noise, very repetitive noise. But the singing is maybe even worse, I do not like her voice.

люблю драм енд бейс)

Solid tracks all around save for a couple. The morse code one was like an amber alert and caught me extremely stressed

Bana böyle beyin uyuşturan bi müzik genresi lazımdı iyi oldu

5 hours but damn I really liked it!!!! 4.25

Hasn’t aged well

Not only do I not like this, but I also hate it. I don't even hate it passionately enough for a 1, because it's also uninteresting.

This album is so longgggggg

Pretty good at some places but too fucking long

Long winded and repetitive often, this album made me somewhat happy

Drum & Bass...

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!

Usually up my alley but a bit too on the bland side.

Oh, so that's why they call it drum and bass.

Braaaap

I thought it was just aight.

55/100. I ended up enjoying this more than I expected to. Roni Size and Reprazent create a rich atmospheric take on drum and bass, blending in jazz influences that give the record a smoother and more textured sound. The biggest issue is simply the scale of it all. At 133 minutes, the album becomes an exhausting listen, and the sound starts to feel repetitive long before it ends. What initially feels hypnotic gradually turns into something that drags under its own weight.

It was fine

“this is outrageous!” - jez

New Forms was pretty cool. Buen album pa escuchar mientras trabajas o haves que haceres. Un poco largo lo cual hace que no tenga tantas ganas de escucharlo pero muy buena muestra de buen DnB 3/5

Was not the worst background music but definitely not for me.

Boring

triphop, sehr motivierend für mich, teilweise alien invasion, teilweise soulful gesang, liebs iwie aber auch ein bisschen anstrengend

Early jungle, acid jazz vibes

This album makes the same mistake that hardcore made after the first wave of punk - if fast is good, faster is better, right? It's all fine if you want to listen to a formal exercise in electronica with no human emotion involved *but* it's of no value if you want to something that's recognizable as music (and not just some lab experiment in how fast you can crank up the tempo on a drum machine).

More enjoyable than I expected. I didn't expect to like the genre but it was varied enough to be interesting enough for me to have subsequently played "This is ...".

I don't know what album this is. There are at least five different versions released in the same year, so I went with the 22 track 2-CD release. I understand the value of alternate versions of a work of art, but it means that discussion of a work is hollow. I'm not reviewing the same album that most other people on this site are, because there is no agreement on what this album is. Does the album as an "album" matter? I guess not. Anyway... This is a chore of an album. I don't have any animosity toward any part of this, but it's just the same beat for two fucking hours. And then some! It's relentless. It pretends to mix things up, but no! We bought the basic drum package, and you will respect it. One song stood out to me. I didn't know there was a real "boots and cats" song, but Beatbox is just that. I guess it's something. This is an awful two hours, but it's not particularly offensive at any moment. Sometimes it's even pretty good. I have no hate for any of these tracks. But it's just the same damn thing for two hours and change. It breaks my rating system a bit, because one star has been reserved for albums I hate on an aesthetic level. It's the kind of stuff I never want to hear again. I don't think I would even notice this in the background, let alone build a hatred for it. 1.5, I guess, but I can't respect it as an album for multiple reasons.

Meh

Okay, so drum and bass isn't really my jam, and even after listening to this, I still think it was a total robbery that it won over OK Computer at the Mercury Prize in 1997. I get that Roni Size is talented and uses jazzy bass and real drums, but the "New Forms" here just end up feeling like a new kind of tired. At almost 80 minutes for just the first disc, and over two hours if you go all in to the extended version (and let's not even talk about the 4 disc, 5 hour marathon of a 20th anniversary edition), it goes from chill background music to a repetitive, anxiety-inducing slog that drags on forever. There are some cool moments, especially on tracks like "Brown Paper Bag" or "Watching Windows", where the jungle/jazz mix actually sounds decent. But for someone who isn't super into it, the same beats and looped vocals make it sound super old and kinda niche. It's important to the greater UK music scene, for sure, and it helped the genre get popular, but unless you're a hardcore 90s raver or need a long, boring soundtrack for work, it's hard to recommend.

Sigh of disappointment with another electronica pick and a very fucking long one, too. Listened to it in the car. Much better than I expected. More development and progression of beats and sounds than I think is usual, and I didn't feel like I needed a cocktail of drugs to get into it. Really not bad. But I can't really say I liked it or would recommend it as a musical milestone. 2.5/5

Fine DnB but too long to be listened to in one sitting

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

Not my favorite it was not that good

As a collection of individual songs intended to be mixed and matched, I get it. As an album it bleeds together in a way I found unpleasant even if I liked pieces in isolation.

I do like drum and bass but I'm not exactly a head. As such, this was a decently enjoyable album, but too long, and not exactly mind-blowing.

Labai patiko, labai ramus ir geras bumčikas

Solid drum and bass

Inoffensive and bland.

REally fun, liked it a lot. SOOO many tracks

Some songs were a bit too repetitive/long for me BUT overall lots of bangers

I sleep

Nice when you drive a car

ME ABURRI, igual yo ya se que no me gusta este tipo de música je

For this style of music, Roni Size kills it with this. But there's only so much drum and bass I can take. Some of these tracks are WAY too long with the same basic loop. Late 90s club scene, yeah, this works. Outside of that, I'll pass

Jarring harsh clean and tight Hurt me with your harsh run shots on repeat. As torturous and effective As come black instant coffee ...on empty stomach ... in a brightly lit room with harsh hard tiled surfaces .... buzzing flourescent light overhead. Place an pristine bar of Cussins Imperial Leather On a flourescent bath mat. I can't comprehend this being so highly awarded. There must be a genetical explanation for this being so repulsive to me. Again, is this British somehow? Je ne comprends pas Et je ne veux pas comprendre Arrêtez maintenant SVP

It's not often Dimery gives you a laugh, but popping into Spotify to see that the 20 year reissue is 53 tracks of the same stuff, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...Really funny, they must be pissing themselves. Pop will eat itself will it, yep arse first. And just on legacy and influence, I don't think Stanley Clarke intended on creating this type of legacy, its an insult to his playing.

While I can admire the commitment of the drum 'n' bass genre to an innovative aesthetic and sound design, it makes me anxious. It's like chugging too much coffee. While New Forms may be the most successful example of the genre, I think if I listened to the whole thing, I would never sleep again. I am also intrinsically skeptical of any album that wins the Mercury Prize. It's a marker of over-hyped pretention, and historically, the winners often have little long-term cultural impact. Applying that sweeping generalization to New Forms seems cruel (but fair).

I tried, but I couldn’t get into this.