New Forms

Perfectly mid drum and bass. There is some nice jazzy elements, but the vocals are very weak. However, the fucking audacity of making this thing well over 2 hours and the fucking audacity of including an album this long while being this mid in a list of albums that you have to hear before you die is inexcusable.

(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.

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

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

ridiculously long for what it is, which is sort of a soul-tinged lesser Groove Armada

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".

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!

1.5 stars upgraded to 2. I have no idea why this is even on the list

Right off the bat I kind of hate this. And the elements I do like become tiresome quickly. I might continue to give this a chance, but I'm not sure I have the patience or interest.

I can't bring myself to say "this is shit" the way I normally do with electronic music because it harkened me back to the mid nineties where so many video games had music like this for their soundtracks. I put this on and played doom for a couple hours. Good? No. Revisit? Never. Awful? Nah.

I like drum and bass

It’s honestly not that bad. Like, it’s not the most amazing thing ever but it’s interesting enough to be interesting. I mean, it was completely background music for me so maybe that helps but it is definitely a drum and bass album.

Not a fan. Felt like it dragged on and on, and I only listened to the first two discs. Quite literally put me to sleep at work on Monday morning.

It’s fine. Long, and mixed very well on some songs (could barely hear anything under the drums). A bit repetitive, and didn’t leave a lasting impression. Rating: 4/10 Favorite Song: Brown Paper Bag

Amen, brother

Not my cup of tea but good at what they do.

Oh no, techno is the one style of music I can't stand at all. It's just so repetetive and boring that it annoys me to no end. I'll give this album a chance but not feeling great about the first song already. Can't make it through this, just horrible, made it 4 songs then ejected.

Never heard of this before. Enjoyed it quite a bit. The proto-Boards of Canada Got a lot of work done with this as background today

Did not listen

A little too drum and bassy for me.

Music for people who hate music and doing anything worthwhile with their time. Over two fucking hours!

Way too fucking long

728/1001 2026.10.21 🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑

1001 Albums Generator 376 (10/21/2026) Some interesting production here, especially on Brown Paper Bag, but the vocals are very bad, and there's no reason for this thing to be so long. 1.5/5, rounded up to 2. Favs: Railing Brown Paper Bag Mad Cat Least Fav: Beatbox

From worse to just bad

5 hours of drum and bass. It's not like I have anything else to do with my life right now.

Kann ich mir nicht anhören

I'm sorry but TWO HOURS?! And THIS is what you have to show for it? I'm someone who really likes D&B, but this is ridiculously bland.

An irrelevant mediocre dance music album. Been a second since I got one of these. It also doubles as an obscure award winner from the late 90s-early 2000s, back when awards had both weight and good-enough taste. This one was awarded the Mercury prize over Radiohead’s OK Computer in 1998, which caused a bit of friction. My opinion on the matter should be obvious twofold: this is not better than OKC, and it also doesn’t really matter. The album itself isn’t UNdeserving of an award. I’m 90% sure it’s the only jazzstep album on here, which is kind of like saying that it’s the only Wyoming ambassador on a global mission to meet sentient aliens; that alone doesn’t make it relevant. Also, the album is way too long. Pretty much every song over 5 minutes is too long, in fact, or at least doesn’t do enough to justify the extra 2, 3, 4 minutes it goes on for. I can’t say that I’ll ever be interested in revisiting this album in full ever, just because of its length. There is SOMETHING to this, though, something that makes it more than just passively listenable. There are moments of real beauty, true beauty, beauty in the electronic sounds that the drums speed over. Beauty in the obscure backpack rappers who guest on the album. In the weird detours it takes, the disfocus of the songs. It’s not a great album, but it’s not a bad one, I guess. 6.2/10 DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: NO REASON: there are more relevant albums than this to keep on the list. WHAT WOULD I REPLACE IT WITH: Brat, probably

I fell asleep listening to this album and woke up to the exact same tune. This will work in a club setting, but even there it will get stale fast.

sometimes stuff just isn't for you, this album is one of those cases. it just felt really.. outdated. It wasn't horrid, but I do not think I would listen to it again in my spare time. Mario Kart has better music.

I think you just have to be on drugs for this one

2,5

Favorite track(s): Brown Paper Bag, Mad Cat, Heroes If this list has done nothing else, it's made me come around to drum and bass. 80 minutes later, nothing crazy, but I don't feel like my life was robbed.

I’m sorry, 2 hours and 20 minutes is WAY too long for a boring drum-and-bass album where every song sounds the same. How the hell is this considered a “magnum opus” for anything? In fairness, this is a good album for getting work done, but really doesn’t have much merit musically.

Reminiscent of video game music from the 90s and early 2000s. Wasn’t really enough to hold my attention throughout the whole thing but parts of it were great.

Unfassbar! Unhörbar! Öde!

Some interesting jazz influenced sections from time to time but generally, electronica is over represented n this project and this is not a must listen unless this is your sort of music. It is not my sort of music, thus the rating.

I'm not really sure how to rate this album. It's waaaay too long, and for anyone who's not a diehard drum-n-bass fan, it's a horrible slog through at least a quarter of its 2+ hour runtime (and then just a slog after that). I remember in the early 2000s I wanted to understand why music critics seemed to be talking up the wonders of drum-and-bass and went and purchased a couple of seemingly well-reviewed albums, including Roni Size/Reprazent's "In the Mode". I kind of wish the project's editors had included that album rather than Ron Size's debut album, because even though "In the Mode" has a lot of the same weaknesses and failings of this album, it's nearly half as long as "New Forms", which is still a good 40 minutes longer than it needs to be. Much like Goldie's album in this collection, there's not a lot of personality to most of the tracks, even those that feature Onallee's vocals; the only track that really seemed to find a (good) groove was "Watching windows". I guess that sort of clinical/programmed sound is part of the appeal of drum-and-bass, at least to some, but for me it's not very fun or good for much beyond background listening (or the soundtrack to a video game). And while I know this won the Mercury Prize, I feel like this collection only needs one dedicated drum-n-bass album, and Goldie's is (a) shorter and (b) has more variety than this album.

I’ve heard this before, but I think the last time was in 1999. Roni Size was my favorite of the drum and bass acts that got big, though there were a lot of other drum and bass and jungle acts that I liked better. I found a 20th anniversary edition that has the album along with 3 bonus discs that’s around 5 hours long which would normally irritate me, but for dance music it actually makes sense. There are a number of remixes but they’re all pretty different from the originals so it doesn’t get repetitive (at least, not any more repetitive than jungle can be). It’s all good!

I loved British Electronica at the time and even then I didn't the ever repeating drum and bass stuff. Didn't age well, too.

This album feels like your heart racing on speed in the worst way.

I love drum and bass. I agree with those that say each song was unnecessarily long.

Great album for a beginner twerker!!! I woke up feeling empowered today so I brought this album with me when I went to my one on one dance lesson. For all 5 hours and 14 minutes of this I learned to throw it back like a high dollar hoe. Morse code had my ass like ._ _ _ _._ !

When I pulled this, I was dreading it, but once it started I actually really liked it. Had a nice vibe that you could really get lost into. I was having a good time until I realized I had another 55 minutes on Disc 2 to listen to. Me being the completionist I am listened to the full thing and yeah definitely was feeling fatigue in the second half where every song just sounded like the same thing over and over again. Still, I overall did enjoy the music, I would just never choose to listen to this full thing again, but I could see myself listening to a few tracks off of it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is what the future sounded like in the late '90s

The initial 5+ hour runtime of the 20th Anniversary Edition of this album on Spotify sent me reeling to the Wikipedia entry to determine the original release length, which was dismaying enough at at just under half that. Pressing play only reinforced my disheartenment, as the repetitive meandering herein knew very few bounds. A few tracks in I realized that bloat extended far beyond just having too many tracks, as each "song" overstayed its welcome by a good half of its runtime. Sure, there were some highpoints (bologna at the wall, as they say), but the boredom inspired by each never-ending (and did I mention repetitive?) entry would have surely become maddening had I not resigned myself to skip swaths of this drudgery and move onto something more interesting and inspired. Several tracks included vocals, which would have broken the monotony had they not been so monotonous in their own right. Cutting more than half of the fat here may had added some interest and variety, but in it's current state it was a 2/5 that boggled the mind at its conclusion on a list like this.

Yeah, no. Stop it. I don't know how many of the 53 tracks on Spotify I was supposed to listen to since there's no original version available, but I got the point after a few and peaced outta there. If I focused really hard on other things I could tolerate this in spurts, but when my brain paid any attention to this I got annoyed quickly.

Clean drum and bass. Nothing really OUT THERE per say, but v funky

#464 When you go to a modern style bar restaurant, probably not of your choosing, where the food is good, as are the drinks, albeit overpriced, the staff are polite and the place is populated by largely younger, more pretentious people where smart casual still means dressing up somewhat. The place is clean, clinical even, and the music is set at just the right volume to be ambient and create a good atmosphere and this is the music they are playing. The other place you might hear this is in a grimy warehouse where everyone is off their face. Drum and bass has never really been my thing, though I always quite liked Brown Paper Bag. Just like the bar restaurant, it’s something I can enjoy but only in small doses. Maybe you do need to hear this before you die, but perhaps not the whole album, which is too long. Heard before? ❌ Would I revisit?❓ Listen before you die?❓ Fave track(s): Brown Paper Bag Rating: 5/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not my style. But better than awful. I don't have to like every genre or artist, even if they don't suck.

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

I suppose this album was put on the list as a joke. At least I cannot find any other explanation. And as far as I know it has been deleted from the newest version of the list.

I was more than halfway through this and all set for giving it 1/5 but in the second half if actually does get pretty decent, before descending again into repetitive tedium. Far too long, nearly two hours but only about half an hour worth hearing when not off your head on illicit substances. Was very glad when it finally ended. I didn’t stick around for the 5 hours plus edition.

Drum & bass isn't something I enjoy, but I respect that this is a significant album for the genre, but it's 140 frickin minutes long - I could've watched a Christopher Nolan movie in that time. All nets out to a 3

Boring vocals are not enough to make up for the uninteresting instrumentals/beats. The songs are all far too long seeing considering all the repetition. This album felt like it was never going to end.

Ya not really for me, background ok stuff I guess

Some interesting sounds, but they get repeated until they bore. I suggest more instruments and some vocals.

I liked it, but it's not really the kind of music I like to listen to in an album format. In my opinion most EDM is better suited to mixes.

No thank you

Well, I found another album I couldn't get all the way through. After seemingly an hour of listening and cringing I looked - and I was on the third track. Sorry, I'm not listening to the rest of this repetitive crap.

Good god, please stop with these albums. This music was done better by other musicians earlier and in a more interesting way. I don’t know how they are added to the list but it needs to stop. There is nothing that this adds to music as a whole even if you enjoy this type of music.

Not terrible. A lot of sameness, but it's above average background music.

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

me senti torturado em absolutamente todos os minutos desse álbum não é exatamente horrível, mas tá muuuuito longe de ser bom po isso aqui eu não precisava escutar de forma alguma, vai ser 1 estrela porque eu quero que o reino unido vá pra puta que pariu

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

Not a fan of dnb but this was pretty tame. I guess that comes with being a pioneer

Brown Paper Bag Share the Fall

1 - TERRIBLE

I like the overall vibe of this album. It's very much not gonna be everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely something I would put on again. It's very digital, but there's lots of florid elements throughout, and I think the bass is really good as well. Not as much I can really add to this. Is it a top 10? No, but is it a pretty good album that I'llcome back to? Yes. Fav Track: Brown Paper Bag

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

4/5

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'll play this in my 99 reg Vauxhall Corsa as me and the lads drive around looking for copper to steal

I don't know what to say so I am going to post a copy of the top comment that almost nailed exactly how I felt about this album. "Ok Roni, we both know I didn’t listen to the full thing, so let’s just shake hands on a 3." I say almost because this is more of a 2 for me.

Pretty chill for d&b

Dude. It's electronic music. More than two hours of this is completely unnecessary. You aren't writing an opera. Or a novel. I think most electronic albums should be extremely short. Enjoyers just set the song to repeat, the artist arranges the song to loop into itself seamlessly, and when you get tired of that song looping, you just skip to the next song. I bet your standard EDM album would be no longer than 10 minutes this way. And for anyone who didn't find it, the 20th anniversary edition is a breathtaking 5 hours and 14 minutes. Jesus. It's not *Gone with the Wind*, or *Doctor Zhivago*. Put it back in your pants, Roni Size. I mean - I liked "Share the Fall" the first time. Do we need two 6+ minute versions of the same song? And this album won the Mercury Prize that year? If I was a candidate that year I'd be pissed. Anyways. TWO STARS

This is about the worst and incoherent "music" I ever heard, and I really have no clue why this album made the book. There is even a little bit of guitar on top of some stupid drum machine beats. Imagine you are a guitar player—why on earth would you want to contribute to this? I really don't get it. Sorry, I did not manage to torture myself for the full album, as this is a terrible waste of my time. Next, please. 1/5

No fav song

Would prefer it without singing.

Nothing jumped out at me as spectacular.

2.5 No clue on how this rates for other D&B albums.. I lost interest 3/4 of the way through

Let's make this clear - I am basing this review on the first two discs that match the original CD release, no bonus tracks or subsequent discs from the 20th anniversary edition. That's still two and a third hours of drum 'n' bass music. That is daunting, and if I'm being honest, this album really doesn't find its footing until a little over halfway through the first disc with "Heroes", save for guest rapper Bahamadia's impeccable flow over the breakneck beats on the title track. But man, once New Forms gets going, it gets going. DJ Roni Size concocted some very stellar beats and atmospheric production. In fact, not all the beats are the typical jungle-esque variety, as he played with beatboxing and Morse code on the tracks that respectively name-call them, plus the swaggering groove from the record-scratching on "Watching Windows" felt very inspired. Si John's bass is noticeably supple throughout the mix, conjuring these motifs that become a central focus of multiple tracks like "Brown Paper Bag", "Let's Get It On", "Hi-Potent" and "Trust Me". Onallee's sultry vocals made for a pleasant appearance on "Heroes", "Watching Windows", and "Share the Fall", even if that last track didn't need two different versions. Not to mention, I really dug how disc two dipped into acid jazz stylings, where the clashing beats worked in tandem with the more prominent basslines and horn embellishments. Even if I feel this album could have been trimmed down, New Forms was an intoxicating experience. Roni Size & Reprazent would release one more album, but still play live occasionally, which is cool to see.

Drum and bass isn’t my thing. It was ok for the first half hour then it started giving me toothache.

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.

boom bap bip bip bop. boom bap bip bip bop. boom bap bip bip bop. boom bap bip bip bop. newforms is the nervous energy of an adolescent crisply tapping on a desk or dinner table waiting to leave cut with cool samples and faux-sophisti vocals while gesturing towards the streets outside. Its importance is due more to the timing and promotion of its release into the British critical conversation (winning the Mercury Prize in 1997) than its actual praxis. To my ears, newforms demands an edit, not an expansion, but I'm sure I'm listening to this record in entirely "the wrong way" by sitting down, concentrating on the music and taking notes. And yet, I don't find that it particularly inspires movement. Too many beats sound like an amphetamine-fueled telegraph operator keying nonsense patterns having heard the cost-per-word limits had been lifted. Delirious but not danceable.

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.

Kan stanna i 90-talet...

Great album by a titan of the genre, but it did drag for the final 25% or so. Still enjoyed myself for most of it. 4.5 rounded down

Roni Super-Size-Me. Ho-lee.

Roni Size & Reprazent’s New Forms suffers under the weight of its own excess, delivering an ambitious drum and bass effort that is ultimately far too long and weighed down by filler. While the album hits high notes with the slow-burn groove of "Brown Paper Bag," the infectious momentum of "Heroes," "Hi-Potent," and "Ballet Dance," and the sharp rhythm work on "Beat Box" and "Morse Code," these highlights are buried beneath a mountain of forgettable tracks. Slog-inducing misfires like "Let’s Get It On," "Digital," and "Jazz" completely derail the pace, while sprawling marathons like "Destination" overstay their welcome. Trimmed down by half—both in total track count and individual song lengths—this could have been a lean, essential classic; as it stands, it's an exhausting, inconsistent marathon.

absolute booty cheeks

My expectation that EDM is going to be awful. Sorry EDM fans, it's true. Brian Eno ruined your genre for me. But this I listened to all the way through. Sure, Digital is too long. And this may have been better as a tight 60 minutes. Maybe Spotify not having the last two tracks saved it. Maybe. But it's also bringing some really strong Massive Attack and Portishead vibes and that's all right with me. Better than a lot of things on this list, a great elevation on most EDM.

This does sound like something that would be iconic for its genre, although I am not a drum and bass person at all. My biggest issue with this album, like most people, is its length, which I don’t think it warrants. I also got fed up with the repetitive structure of songs that would seem like they ended, and then continue with a few minutes of a different beat. That said, this isn’t the worst thing I’ve had to listen to on here. It’s just not something I’d realistically go back to.