Metalheads – Angel

You And Me - The Beauty - The Beast Piano – Robin Smith Always seemed as though it was just to break out into the theme tune to Eastenders! Ouch! And I wish the vocals by Diane - Charlemagne had been put onto another track... The synth and piano seem totally out of tune! Which is a real shame because Diane really could sing!!! Very bad quality control on this record. The other version of Angel (sax attack) version is the best Imho... The quality track on here is Saint Angel that was played on many a pirate back in the day. All in all this record isn't worth £25 quid (Highest: £25.00) for 3 tunes let alone one!

Well If you want to know why this record sounds ahead of it's time, Look to those "co-producer" credits of Dego from 4 Hero and Markmac of Manix. I don't know if I can think of another individual in any genre that's able to take credit for the work of talented, established producers like Goldie does on literally all of his records. In the case of 'Timeless' it was Moving Shadow label boss Rob Playford....It's well known that Rob did pretty much all of the work and sound design while Goldie sat back and made suggestions. For 'Saturn Returns' it was Optical. I curious what this guy actually does on a given record.

I cannot believe this record came out in 1993. The production was so far ahead of what everyone else in the jungle scene was doing that I think it took about 2-3 years for everyone to catch up. However as far as the ideas contained within I think this record was never matched. This can be attested by the fact that these tracks appeared two years later on the Timeless album that blew everyone away and still remains one of the crowning moments of drum and bass.

Saint Angel is one of the darkest tracks ever conceived. That squawking sound that to me sounds like a raven flying circles over you waiting to feed on your corpse; the opening mournful sound announcing your doom; that punishing metalic stab/hoover like a brutal taskmaster urging you to march. I spent so much time trying to ponder the nature of these sounds. The groove is tremendous: a very funky breakbeat (cleverly used pieces of Apache plastered over some other breaks) - really one of the best programmed breakbeats ever; perfectly timed sub-bass bombs. It's very interesting structurally because very unusually it ends on a very hopeful note at the end - the transition is masterful - that is like a dawn lifting and banishing the evil spirits.

"You And Me" is also very good. Great piano lines, not just a couple chords banged out over and over and some beautiful strings to match. The vocals sound out of tune but in a very appealing way, they create a very interesting dissonance. The whole thing sounds a bit fragile and wispy. Again the track goes somewhere the structure isn't just a repetition of a few loops.

All in all simply a stunning EP, an achievement that no one involved matched again except possibly on the follow-up "Inner City Life" EP.