New Forms

Only listened once but it didnt go down well.

29th May 2023 Listened mainly on Tuesday as Monday we were travelling to Italy with Jen’s fam. Another for the live experience, wouldn’t sit and listen to an album of it.

No thanks.

New Forms by Roni Size is an album that unfortunately falls flat in nearly every aspect. Released in 1997, it is often hailed as a pioneering record in the drum and bass genre. However, as someone who has listened to it and found it to be lacking, I can confidently give it a rating of 1 out of 5. One of the major issues with New Forms is its lack of cohesion and direction. The album seems to jump haphazardly between different styles and sounds, never fully committing to a consistent sonic landscape. While experimentation can be commendable, in this case, it results in a disjointed listening experience that fails to engage the listener. Furthermore, the production on this album leaves much to be desired. The mixing feels muddled and muddy, making it difficult to appreciate the individual elements of the music. The beats lack punch, the basslines sound weak, and the overall sound quality feels lackluster. It's a shame because a genre like drum and bass thrives on crisp, dynamic production, but that is sorely lacking here. In terms of songwriting, New Forms falls short as well. The tracks often lack memorable melodies or hooks, making them forgettable and indistinguishable from one another. The repetitive nature of the beats and lack of compelling musical ideas make the album feel monotonous and tedious to listen to. Additionally, the album suffers from an overreliance on repetitive vocal samples and uninspired lyrics. Rather than adding depth or enhancing the songs, these elements feel like filler and fail to contribute anything meaningful to the overall experience. It's disappointing to say, but New Forms by Roni Size fails to deliver on its promise of groundbreaking drum and bass. With its lack of cohesion, subpar production, and uninspired songwriting, it is an album that ultimately falls short of leaving a lasting impression. I would strongly discourage anyone seeking a satisfying drum and bass experience from investing their time in this particular release.

Pour ceux qui n'auraient pas vu passer l'info, Robert est actuellement en dépression, ce qui explique la série abominable qu'il est en train de nous proposer. Je l'ai appelé ce matin dans la matinée pour lui demander de prendre un rail de coke ou deux histoire de se changer les idées. Je vous tiendrai informés.

I know you're fucking lying with this 140 minute run time...oh you're not? Is it at least actual music or just techno sounds? Oh, of course it is the latter. 177 albums in, and I am finally viscerally angry at the mere existence of an album, let alone its selection for this exercise. Thank God I didn't get this album early on, or I would have quit on the spot.

ikke for meg i det hele tatt

Why on earth would anyone put THIS on the list?!? It may have it's fans, but this is not a collection of the 1001 best Drum'N'Bass albums. I just don't see - or hear - the significance.... 1/5

The trouble with drum & bass albums is you listen to them for an hour but the Powerpuff Girls episode never starts.

What the hell was that? I feel like someone got Ross from Friends to make an album.

Mmmm brown paper bag

It should clearly belong to the list '1001 Albums You Should Not Hear Before You Die'

This was so bad I blocked this artist on Spotify.

I think this was the first electronic release with high potential for me to enjoy it a little more since it has some recognizable instruments behind the whole electronic stuff. However, it has 2 HOURS!!!!! I guess it's impossible to enjoy anything for 2 hours in 2023; I'm sorry.

I had to Google to see if this was the world record holder for longest album. Honestly, even for a record meant for the club... It's just 3x too long. It's a 3 star album dropped to a 1 star because of the length.

Maybe it's a marvel for drum & bass. Maybe this album redefined the genere. Maybe 9/11 unified the US.

There are lots of jokes about drummers and bass players. This is what happens when they decide to bring those jokes to life. Words can't express how disturbed I am that these people actually get paid for this.

Not my genre but there was one cool beatbox song

Just not for me. Feels relentless but not in a good way.

Not good. 1997 might be the worst year in music history.

What are we doing? Really? Easy to ignore, for the most part, so props for that. Repetitive 💩

A few decent beats, pretty repetitive but I guess thats the point. People on molly maybe would enjoy this. Not list worthy, didn't finish

Not for me

Didn't finish. Too experimental to enjoy without being high or drunk.

This wasn't terrible, but every song felt like the last.

Just... no.

pass

A slightly more modern album today - although saying that, it’s still 25 years old so it’s not exactly new. Most music I’ve been listening to recently is from 60s-70s, and variety is the spice of life. Songs I already knew: none Favourite after listening: none Overall: 1/10 Unfortunately, I just don’t get it. Possibly if I was blitzed off my face on a cocktail of party drugs it might be more enjoyable, but sitting at my desk with my headphones on does not make for an enjoyable experience. This is also the kind of album where after you’ve heard the first song, you’ve basically heard them all. It is extremely repetitive, and it’s around 140 minutes long. I expect this would be exhausting even for the diehard fans. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t listen to the whole thing, but it was exhausting and I wasn’t getting any enjoyment from it - putting myself through the whole album get like a waste of my time and my sanity.

1,5/5 Best song: Brown paper bag

Oh jeez thus was just brutal. It's too damn long for one thing. This could be less than half of its length. Its also just not very interesting to me. Maybe people that like this kind of thing see it as a classic. Perhaps it's highly influential (the wikipedia page does seem to indicate this) but I can't say that I enjoyed any of it at all. I was bored from the get go and it just went on and in and on and on. Listening to this, for me, must be like all the people hearing Scum and giving it a 1. At least Napalm Death has the courtesy to be brief.

Reminds me of an old friend who I haven’t seen in a long time. The most positive thing I can say here. Not my thing.

This was not for me

Perfect for when you're craving a hangover but don't want the empty calories that come from drinking 15 Jack & Cokes.

trash

Not a fan of dnb, gives me a headache

2 hours long

Way too long. I don't like the sounds on this one. Maybe I'm just used to a better version of this genre.

I knew I'd been served a shit sandwich 3 seconds in. Made it a handful of songs in but the repetitive clicks and pops were giving me a headache so I had to give up.

Shit

VERY repetitive. While I’m not huge into electronic music, I’ve been exposed to and enjoyed plenty of it. This was 3 hours of the same beeps and boops over and over and is the FIRST album through 568 reviewed so far that I could not finish. Miss me with that nearly 3 hour run time holy fuck, learn to shorten your shit.

You can't be serious. 2 hours and 19 minutes? I can't actually listen to this album to judge it in its entirety. Maybe if it was a quality album, but just from the time I listened, it felt outdated. Eh. Some of the beats were okay, but man was it repetitive. Good on the people who made it and got a Mercury Prize! But that doesn't necessarily translate to quality listening today. Clearly.

It's a no from me. So long... Some nice beats, but I didn't enjoy this album.

I went into "New Forms" fully expecting not to like it. Goldie's oh-so-ironically named "Timeless" had done nothing for me a few months back, and drum n' bass is really not my jam. But to give it a little credit, once I tried to zone out from the interminable length, it seemed there would be enough to like in "New Forms". "Brown Paper Bag", the most famous track, boasts an addictive fretless bass refrain and a frenetic beat. It's a freak-out, a riot, and it's fun. The same bass crops up in various tracks across the record and gives a unique, fluid kind of texture. But outside of that, there was a lot of repetition in the first disc alone. "Matter of Fact" is totally needless noodling around with sound effects, different synth lines over a stuttering fractured beat. "Morse Code" and "Destination" were more of the same- I wanted to like them but I just wasn't picking up on many intricacies or shape to them. I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that it was all a waste of time. I struggled my way to the end of the album listed on Spotify, realised it was only part 1 and there was another hour to go, and then put off going near the rest of it for several months. By the time I eventually got through the whole thing (23 tracks, 2 hours 20 minutes!) it hadn't changed my mind on the genre. It's marginally better than some of the other drum and bass albums I've heard (I liked a lot of the instrumentation and the vocal features) but it torpedoes itself with its length. I can't go too in-depth because I'd have to put myself through it all again and I'm going to have to go with my first impression. Some of the individual tracks may have been far better in a shorter album, but as it is I'm unlikely to ever listen to the whole thing again. That makes a one star in my book. I'd go back to: "Brown Paper Bag", "Heroes", "Watching Windows", "Electricks".

The genre isn’t for me. Didn’t enjoy any of these songs.

Gross. I know my music tastes are quite narrow, hence why I’m going through the list. But I don’t understand why this one is on here. 1

This was my first and last listen of this album. I listened to all 2+ hours of both discs. The 20th anniversary version on Spotify has additional content bringing the total time to over 5 hours. There's not enough MDMA in the world. I genuinely gave this a true listen through a good sound system and tried to keep an open mind throughout. I was in a state of discomfort by the time I was a few tracks in, but by the end I was internally screaming. I am clearly not the intended audience here, but wow I hated this. 0 stars.

Started listening to this while doing my taxes. I have to admit that I was occasionally bobbing my head while I was focused on entering 1099s into Turbotax... but that's about all this is good for. Background music while you do something else. Otherwise, it's boring and incessantly repetitive. Why are so many of these songs 7+ minutes?! Life is too short to spend your time listening to this album. Couldn't make it all the way through.

Oh I struggled on this one

I found this quite boring.

This is my 439th album and the first one I haven't finished. After 7.5 tracks, I know what they're going for. I don't need to listen to 14.5 more of the same thing. They broke my spirit. It's drum and bass with unimaginative lyrics and mediocre vocals. Best track: N/A

This is the late 90s distilled into one album. It's hard to think of it as new or interesting in any way--it's so repetitive and dated D:

Drums and bass for over an hour. This is some form of cruel torture.

1.5

Dit album is mij te ‘minimal’. Er zit voor mij onvoldoende melodie en harmonie.

No drum n bass for me.

So boring, especially with The Prodigy having been up recently. It’s like Mark Rebillet started off a jam and then just left it going while he went out to buy groceries

Drum and bass isn't typically my vibe so I didn't get a lot from this album.

Nope, not enjoyable at all. Way to repetitive.

horrible.

No thanks.

Ik zit vier nummers ver en heb nog niets goed gehoord. Precies één eentonig nummer.

I didn't like it.

I do not see its value

Do ears exist for a reason? No? Why do I have them?

Not a DnB fan, apparently.

0.6

Not my thing.