Post
					
								by joeki » Tue May 24, 2011 11:18 am
			
			
			
			
			I know I'm going to get some major flames for this. 
First off, it is against etiquette apparently to "hate" on a release. Especially when it's a release by a critically acclaimed legend. And let's get that out of the way straight from the start : Skream has in fact help shape the sound of dubstep and the best part of his releases are classics or at the very least good. 
But now the inevitable has happened, Skream has released a mediocre, at best, record. God forbid someone makes note of it and expresses his/her opinion about it. Granted, there are a thousand releases less interesting out there even still and I basically could have chosen any one of those to criticise. But I chose this one, as it is released on a fairly big label that brought us some inspired releases in its history (not in the least DIS013 by Youandewan, fully worth the money). So this was kind of a shocker to me. 
"Hats off has one redeeming value, the synths in the beginning and at the end sound especially warm and nostalgic despite being simple. The rest is a mediocre throwback to an era that, in the end, wasn't really that great when I think about it more. I am old enough to have witnessed both jungle and rave (albeit, not in the UK of course). This music was done better then and there. It's simple amens with a few vocal samples thrown in, almost at random. It probably does enough the make me shake a leg until those typical Acid effects step in, TB-303 and all that. This just sounded out of place. It's like an amalgamation of nostalgia that for me doesn't really go anywhere but does get a friendly nod from me. 
Heavy Hitter, where do we start? I mean, I think we can all agree this track has been done before by a number of artists? It brings nothing new to the table, it doesn't hit especially hard. And not every track has to be that extra special, from the comments I've read on the board, youtube, soundcloud, this track seems to be the shit. So there could be something I'm missing? It does nothing for me really: it's a repetitive midrange track. It doesn't have any feature setting it apart from say, Skreamizm vol. 4 or 5 (which sounds fresher than this even today). I could write the same story for Hitter except that it contains a more trademark skream style percussion (claps/hats). It also adds that "yoi" sound as some have come to call it: no reason what so ever to do this, other than to please a certain crowd. 
Which brings us to Sea Sick. This is quite an amusing dance floor inspired track. I'd gladly hear this one on the floors. But to say it excellences or is unique or top class in any area would again be going to for. (also the little nod to the "yoi" thing is just annoying). 
This is just basically very mediocre stuff and I find it hard to understand that people still go nuts for this in 2011, this sound has all been done before and has been done better many times...but agreed, it's also done a lot worse.  
Oh, I did like the "Where You Should Be" remix pack. Seiji's remix is fantastic.