[rating: 2.5]
This week’s guest album review style comes courtesy of gratuitously offensive print mag Heat. Because their music review format is actually quite dull though, we’re using their film review format instead to take a closer look at the latest full-length effort from RJD2. Or Ramble John Krohn as his mum knows him…
WHAT’S RIGHT WITH IT?
The beats stupid! Always inventive and funky with those drum patterns or samples RJ doesn’t disappoint on this score once again. The production is also strong (as past form would lead you to expect) and this is slightly less self-indulgent than last effort The Third Hand for which read that RJD2 limits himself to only singing on a few tracks this time though, surprisingly, the biggest hook on the LP does actually come from Glow on which Krohn sings.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT?
Hmm – where to start? Well, it’s a shame those great beats are all plastered with soundscapes that call to mind nothing so much as 70s prog rock (and let’s face it – all the warning signs are there in the LP cover) – the only saving grace being that even RJD2 baulks at dropping 20 minute tracks – though having heard this – I wouldn’t put it past him next time round. Even when he does what he does best and ropes in a some rappers all we get is the leaden backpack-rhythms of A Son’s Cycle on which Catalyst, Illogical and NP fail to dazzle. Mind you none of the other guests (including Kenna and Phonte Coleman) really impress as if they too have been afflicted by the same uncertainties as Krohn himself. And what the fuck is it with those digital horns? They’re on everything and they sound like they’ve come off Apple’s Garageband.
VERDICT
Colossus would probably like to imagine itself as a beat-laden Flaming Lips standing legendarily astride the entrance to some sort of harbour of cool whereas it actually comes across as something uncomfortably closer to a beat-laden Yes that has washed up on the beaches of coffee-table land. This has all the danger and glamour of an afternoon with the kids at a ‘soft-play’ centre.