I have to be honest here and say I've just now decided to jot down a few lines about Speedy J's much talked about album "A Shocking Hobby", and the main reason is that its true magnitude and greatness are only now crystal clear and palpable to me.
Eight years after it came out, and I can claim with enough confidence that in my ears, this still sounds like George Paap's production masterstroke.
Tracks like Drill, Actor Nine, Balk Acid and Amoco Cadiz are yet be surpassed in terms of production complexity, intensity and general sound quality.
Not for the candy ravers, not for laid back home listening, the type of music which would make your girlfriend question your sanity, the album remains a landmark classic. A benchmark in Speedy J's extensive opus, with potential to de(con)struct, taer apart, knock down and build back up from scratch listeners perception of music.
With a distinct and instinctive knack for provoking ample sets of moods, defying the odds and keeping a repellent attitude towards trends, "A Shocking Hobby" will continue giving rise to doubt, while its status of a unique work untainted by foreign factors remains in tact. One of the best albums I own. Heavy weight stuff this good doesn't come around very often, so missing out on this would be a capital mistake. 10/10.

Given "A Shocking Hobby"'s harsh and abrasive character, you'd be forgiven to believe that Jochem Paap is a somewhat unbalanced person, when he's in fact an easy-going, polite and mild-mannered guy. Building on the same framework as its predecessor "Public Energy #1", this album combines sheer white noise, colossal breakbeats and deeply emotional strings to brilliant effect, perfectly balancing the contrasts between dystopian darkness and melancholic warmth. Sometimes depressing, sometimes hair-raising, sometimes beautiful and always breathtaking, "A Shocking Hobby" is a modern classic, although certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Although very slow, this album is full of energy. From the very first second, you get trapped into a storm and you can't escape. Speedy J delivers deep fat (and I mean FAT) bassdrum that make you feel the Earth is about to collapse.
The climax probably comes with "Actor nine": if you ever experience the birth of a volcano, this is what it has to sound like!
The closing track, "Manhasset" ends it all in a smooth way: the creator sits above his creation, right in the middle of an electric thunderstorm and quietly plays the piano, seemingly proud of what came out of his mind. Well, I bet you can man!

I got this album when it was recommended to me by a guy that works at the record shop I shop at. I'm glad I bought it! Its somewhat minimalist drum n bass with some chilly atmospherics. The main focus seems to be the distorted trashcan-style beats. The everpresent distortion serves to really set the feel. "Ferber Acid" is the best track.