dd3_gorillaz

11:04 pm: Rip Slyme - Funfair
Um.. I'm gonna try to use a cutoff tag.

<lj-cut> With a few exceptions, I've never been that big on Rip Slyme. (If anyone cares, the exceptions are "Funkastic", "Steppers Delight", "Zatsunen Entertainment", "Dandelion" and "Super Shooter" which are all awesome.) I don't know. I remember listening to GOOD JOB and EPOCH a while back and other than the songs from Animutations and a couple others, I just didn't like the beats. Maybe my tastes have gotten better, or maybe this is a much better disc than the two I just mentioned. I love the way they constructed the beats on this disc and I've always liked their rapping style. Now I'm gonna attempt to do a track-by-track.

01. Introduction

This is a pretty good description of the mixing style. It's an instrumental consisting of strings, banjo, marching drums and a few other things chopped together into a song. It gradually gets louder until it decides to change melody, lose the banjo and gain electronic drums and noises. It changes back and fades out. Cool intro.

02. NP

This starts with a chopped up bass riff, a breakbeat is added and two more versions of the bass are added, both harmonizing. I can't talk about what they're saying because I don't know a word of japanese, but it sounds good and that's really all I care about.

03. Bubble Trouble

The first beat on this song is based on some techno sounds and casio handclaps. Speaking of that, before the rap starts there is a sampled version of whatever the main line of this song is and it sounds low-quality. Like maybe it was done with the Casio SK-1 sampler. Another breakbeat is added and a single trumpet sample which is manipulated throughout the song. Once again it sounds great. I have an idea for an animutation based on this actually. I doubt I'll do it, though. Way too lazy. Maybe if I attempted to do one with Vegas...

04. SPEED KING

Just go to YouTube or whatever and watch the music video. It contains them all in skeleton suits dancing, rainbow skulls and what I think are sprites from the original SMB.  Not to mention that the song is awesome.

05. Tales

I guess Rip Slyme are Japan's equivalent of the Backstreet Boys. This is that generic 90's boy-band ballad.

06. Zannen Boy

After that last track, this fades in with the treble at the bottom which is gradually raised.  It's an instrumental with awesome noises which sound like they came from a speak-and-spell combined with an old string sample. I dig it.

07. concourse1

An odd sounding beat fades in with some crowd noise and one of them going "Uh. Uh." like rappers do. And then a brass section comes in with one of those generic click beats found in most all modern rap and what I think is a female singer. The click beat combines with some can rattling and such and it makes it sound good, actually. The brass section is taken out for the actual rap part. This is mostly just them rapping over that beat with nothing behind it. There is a single synth in the background at parts and for a chorus they go back to the part with the brass section. After two verses a cool synth comes in with a three-note line that actually kinda sounds like something that would fit in a Kraftwerk song. Due to that, the beat changes to just four bass drums per measure and the female singer(s?) sings over that. And then that beat gains the click beat, a new synth and the rappers which are actually in Rip Slyme. And that turns into the chorus again. I'm not sure why these songs are called "concourse" because I'm pretty sure that I clearly hear them repeating the word "Evolution" in the chorus. That turns back into the four bass drums with the can rattling and such behind it. The female voice echoes into space for a while and the song fades out.

Holy crap, I just realised that the next song on this song is called EVOLUTION and it features Coma-Chi who I can only assume is the female singer on the last song I was talking about. I'm pretty sure I either have the songs in the wrong order or I'm missing some. I guess you guys can enjoy this epic fail review anyway. No hate comments, guys. What I was trying to say is that I think the album is good. At least what I have from it. :S</lj-cut>