As music these days seems to perpetually mine the past for ideas ratherthan develop new ones, the notion of an Acid Revival or Renaissance hasstarted to emerge. As someone with a real background in the glory daysof rave culture and acid house, you'd expect new material from LukeVibert touted as Acid to be innovative yet deeply rooted in the historyof the music. Instead, YosepH,oddly enough his first album ever for Warp, is a journey far away fromthe dancefloor to a rather deep place somewhere inside Vibert's rectum.While many producers are rediscovering the power of the TB-303 in theirclub-oriented tracks, the thirteen songs presented here are largelynoodly, downtempo, and less than impressive. For roughly half thealbum, we are treated to forgetable throwaway cuts like "StanD'Infamy", "Harmonic" and "Slowfast." The other half are listenable,but equally unremarkable. "Synthax" would have some potential if thebeat were chunkier and the tempo doubled a la his recent work as AmenAndrews on Rephlex. The somewhat dubby "Freak Time Baby" consists of asteady groove with echoed synth stabs and a pointless vocal. There area few places on the CD where Vibert's formula seems to work enough towarrant a second listen. The first single "I Love Acid" stands outamong the bunch with a super catchy vocoded hook and bubbling bassline."Countdown" throws together two-step garage with 303 trickery for afunky result that deserved to be fleshed on more on this album. YosepHhad some real potential here, and Warp had a good chance to come out ontop with the first high-profile, high quality Acid album in years.Instead, we're left with an overhyped release of less than stellarsounds from a label perhaps past its prime in terms of relevance. Let'shope someone else gets this Acid Renaissance right so that YosepH is not the last word on the matter. samples:
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