★★★☆☆
Anchored by crossover busters “Through the Night,” “Freak” with its chorus that sounds sung by a vocodered Frankie Valli, and the Utah Saints/Annie Lennox re-up “What Can You Do For Me”, Drumsound & Bassline’s stadium-scooping, sunshine-encouraged jump ups surge like a bullet train buffed by energy drink. On a silver platter of chord changes — doubly dramatic and in tune with your body’s biorhythms, when really they’re only following a simple ABC — and with 90% vocalization for that essential festival/holiday moment to cling onto, it’s a lesson in reflex, songwritten dance.
Glad as you’ll be for Drumsound & BS keeping it strictly drum & bass rather than go into unrelated areas, predictability persists. A few warp speed basslines leave eardrums looking like a colander, giving it up for “Pull It Up Selector”, a trusted, timely old school throwback, and “All Day” taking the Jungle Brothers back to when Urban Takeover thrust them into a late ’90s drop-top wobbling D&B limelight.
As “Solitude” and “U Ain’t Ready For Me” scorch at the sharp end, the guitar-rocked “Tough Times,” doing airwaves dubstep, is a little off the pace with the thunderbolts zinging past it, and the Haduoken! typhoon “Daylight” will get purists prickly — harsh, given Bassline Smith’s long run in the game. The wall’s foundations are found rocky without much rocket science calculation – too many similar-sounding outings, put together on an excessively drawn out (the iTunes version runs 23 tracks) LP.
File under: Blame, Sub Focus, Brookes Brothers
