Roni Size Albums (6)
'Touching Down, Vol. 2'
Release Date 10/4/2005
Tracks 17
Label Full Cycle
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Not only a seminal producer in drum'n'bass, Roni Size also led the mainstream assault with excellent vocal crossovers like Reprazent's New Forms and Breakbeat Era's Ultra-Obscene. The first earned him the Mercury prize and the second stands as the best blending of aggro drum'n'bass with dedicated vocals ever heard (apologies to Lamb). Two years after a tracks-only record (Touching Down) that easily satisfied his fan base, Size returned as a commercial force with the "100% Vocal" Return to V. V Recordings, the hardcore label run by Jumpin' Jack Frost and Bryan Gee, was the home of Size's early classics "Timestretch" and "It's a Jazz Thing," so jungle fans could be easily forgiven for salivating at the prospect of another jungle landmark. Unfortunately though, Return to V isn't a back-to-basics record, and there isn't a single landmark to pick out from its 18 tracks. Size invited at least one different guest for each track, and the roster provides a look at the many styles influencing British club culture at the dawn of the millennium: hip-hop, R&B, ragga, jungle, 2-step, and house. The rub is that Size forces each of his guests into his technoid drum'n'bass format, fails to provide most of them with a hook, and relies on his production smarts -- as well as a heavy coating of fuzz -- to carry these tracks. The distance between ragga chatter Sweetie Irie and Marvin Gaye disciple Joe Roberts is neatly erased, which certainly allows for a unified album, but also one in which zero tracks stand out. Size dips out of jungle only once, for a solid hip-hop production with rapper Darrison as the feature, and rolls right over two world-class British MCs, Rodney P and Fallacy. (Fallacy is cut to exactly six words: "break it down" and "take it down"; fortunately, both of them have solo records of their own.) House vocalist Jocelyn Brown, who's been a musician for as long as Roni Size has been alive, is the only feature who escapes from this record with personality intact. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Roni Size's first "solo record" after two as the head of the Reprazent collective comes at a curious time for drum'n'bass. After a long lull, when jungle was criticized (often rightly) as the refuge of antisocial listeners and an increasingly stale sound, a comeback led by a few surprising chart hits (from Shy FX and others) helped push club fans back into the music. Though it's a sure bet at least three or four tracks from Touching Down will get their spins in the sets of jungle's top DJs, there's not much room here for a crossover on the level of his 1997 record, New Forms. With no vocalists, no collaborators, not even a co-producer in sight (and obviously no Die or Krust or Suv in the credits), the album simply powers its way through 16 tracks of seamlessly mixed high-velocity drum'n'bass. True, there's barely a hook to be found ("At the Movies" and "Feel the Heat" are two great exceptions), but there's a bit of next-level programming in place to ease the way. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It's easy to blame The Man. Joblessness. Prejudice. Michael Bolton covering "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay." Yet few things were more cause for alarm than the self-destruction of jungle. What once began as an infuriated call to arms to take back a piece of dance culture that they once helped create, the British black underground saw such an extraordinary and deeply innovative new genre saturating the clubs, being name checked in every "credible" pop band's interview, and then quickly shuffled off into Nike ads. They should've known that The Man likes to assimilate. Indeed, with drum'n'bass in such pseudo-intellectual dire straits (helped put there, ironically enough, by Reprazent's own New Forms), it was a fine time for an album like In the Mode to have its say. And Reprazent, at least, are saying they've had enough. The level of punk fury and torrential modernization is high all throughout this record. "In and Out" with its accelerated heartbeat, "Ghetto Celebrity" with its raucous Method Man cameo, "In the Tune of the Sound" with Rahzel's stellar beat-boxing: The jumpy uppercuts of rhymes and pounding polyrhythms seem to reach the very limits of jungle's schizophrenia. Not that this is an embarrassment of darkcore efforts. As in "Out of the Game," the wrath of this album is not so much political, not so much in creating heavy soundscapes, it's conveyed more in a harder, live-sounding blast of back to basics hip-hop roots. Remember that rush you felt when you first heard your first drum'n'bass track? So do Reprazent, and they build the album to such a pitch that one can only assume that this is what it sounds like when a genre reclaims its importance. Undoubtedly, hardcore jungleists will scoff at such a high-profile, sometimes flashy presentation of drum'n'bass ethics, but this is an album full of such militant energy that it deserves to be seen as one of the strongest saving graces of jungle in years. Reprazent sounds like a band trying to make jungle's sonic equivalent to the mutinous Xtrmntr. Except instead of fighting for "civil disobedience," they seem intent in shooting down every head-nodding, spec-wearing disaster their chosen genre has created. Can you still blame The Man? Sure. But only if you admit that an album of this dimension would never have existed unless jungle was first brutally sentenced to death. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
From the final drum'n'bass pioneer to release a full-length, Roni Size's New Forms could well be the best. Though it's slightly bloated at two full discs, and slightly overhyped due to its winning Britain's Mercury Prize, New Forms was the major statement on drum'n'bass, barring only Goldie's Timeless. Size's prime asset is his unique style -- tough, careening breakbeats and metallic time-stretched effects over the organic, elastic sounds of upright bass and other jazzy add-ons. He also has a knack for deft pacing; though many of his productions test the seven-minute mark, he plays around with the beats so much that no track ever grows boring. On the title track, he weaves two sets of female vocals -- American rapper Bahamadia and resident Reprazent diva Onallee -- into the mix, digitally syncopating Bahamadia's rap into the production with complete precision. The constantly retriggering breakbeat on "Matter of Fact" makes it another highlight, and Size's transition from the atmospheric "Heroes" to a raging breakbeat storm like "Share the Fall" (both are Onallee features) is astonishing. Yes, Size's production clout is much more apparent on the first disc than the second, but New Forms is laced with so much genius it's worth the price of two discs to own all the excellent productions inside. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
