REVIEW: Grooverider, Mysteries Of Funk (Higher
Ground/Columbia)
- Simon West
The man they call The Godfather of drum & bass finally gets around to putting his own album out. Grooverider has been part of the DJ scene for a dozen years, including a four year stint spinning discs at London's Heaven on Rage night and heading up Goldie's Metalheadz nights. Name-checked by all, from protege Goldie to minimalist master Photek, Grooverider is credited by many as the inventor of drum & bass. The expectations for Mysteries Of Funk are rather high then, given the history and reputation.
Unfortunately, what we get is rather less than expected. Mysteries Of Funk is by no means a bad album, it's simply less inspired than you might have hoped - the bar has been cleared, but not raised. First off, it's too long by half. This is not uncommon with the drum & bass set, or indeed albums as a whole these days, but someone's got to realize eventually that less can indeed be more.
Second, and substantially more importantly, there's not a lot here that's truly revolutionary. The usual ingredients are thrown into the pot - brass samples, science fiction soundbites, the odd ethereal vocal. It's all been heard before for the most part. There are moments of greatness - the aggressiveness of "Where's Jack The Ripper?" brings to mind Photek's clean, savage beats, with a touch more instrumentation, "560 Degrees" drops the jazz noodlings in favor of a hard beat and an industrial feel, and "Time & Space" has a cool jazz feel and clean beat to it.
Not a bad album, and drum & bass fans will doubtless want to pick it up in order to hear the master at work. Ultimately, however, Mysteries Of Funk sounds like the teacher has spent a little too much time listening to his students. An unfortunately unadventurous album, in this most adventurous of musical genres.
