Upbeats, The - The Upbeats

Got this shipped direct from New Zealand, and it's been the best 30 bucks I've spent in a while.

If you've heard tracks The Upbeats (or the stuff under their alias D. Wolf & T. Snake) then you know they've got a fairly unique sound, a grinding, warbling baseline, that doesn't hit the really deep booms of Gridlok or Kryptic Minds & Leon Switch, but still carries an immense sense of power.

The first track on this CD came as a surprise when I put it in, a slow, melodic guitar driven chillout. It turns out this is an honest-to-goodness album, with a beginning, middle and end, instead just a collection of their 12" releases, and it turned out great for someone such as I, who's just a music fan, and not a DJ.

That isn't to say there's nothing for the clubs in here. Quite the contrary, I'd say Binge Drinker is heavier then Werewolf, and View From The Inside is almost up there, despite having a distracting intro. In fact, the only complaint I had where the two Wayhay tracks, which didn't fit in at all. They used a weird distortion effect (or something, I lack the proper knowledge to identify the instrument used), and it really broke up the flow of the album, especially between Late Nite Fright (another grinder) and Lobster (vocals over a bouncy, echoy bassline). Besides the two Wayhays, Go Round and Peep Hole are the only tracks that have gotten boring after almost 5 months of constant rotation in the CD player, and it's still definitely one of my favorite CDs.

Hard: Binge Drinker, Teef Smasha & Late Night Fright. Vocals: More Than Me, View From The Inside, Lobster & Drizzle. Build-up: Psyesta. All-round cool: Hello, From The Deep & Sand Bar. Nothing interesting: Wayhay, Wayhay Contd..., Peep Hole & Go Round. Something for everyone.