Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Review
Over the course of only four years, Rustie has already churned through a whole range of different musical forms. Impressively, none so far have felt like missteps. Even as the aquatic hip hop of early EP Jagz the Smack dissolved into the out-there, razor-edged psychedelia of Zig-Zag and Bad Science, the Glasgow-based producer never overstepped the mark into self-indulgent excess. That's largely down to his knack for assimilating new influences into his music without diminishing what's already present, a technique he's distilled down to its essence on debut album Glass Swords.
Glass Swords, however, is undeniably self-indulgent. Effectively the sound of Web 2.0 information overload set to music, it finds Russell Whyte categorically refusing to reduce the breadth of his tastes into a manageable, coherent vision. Instead he simply piles everything on top of each other, often jamming five or six recognisable influences into a single four-minute track. The chemical reactions this process generates are chaotic, exhausting and a thrill to behold, as tiny signifiers of different genres lurch to the surface for a few seconds at a time before being swept away in the rush. The glossy synths and massive drum rolls of Timbaland RnB are present, as is the booming percussion of dirty south hip hop, and buried elsewhere in the melee it's easy to detect fragments of dubstep, UK garage, classic Detroit techno and trance.
Album highlight Ultra Thizz is among the messiest of these fusions: it distends a trance-like synth riff until it takes on grotesque characteristics, before ramping up the tempo to an almost unbearable level. Through headphones it's intense enough; its effect on a crowd is little short of electrifying, sending a flurry of limbs skyward as if someone's passed several thousand volts across the dancefloor.
Like friend and fellow member of Glasgow's Numbers collective Hudson Mohawke, Rustie's music can be a little difficult to handle. Like Mohawke's album Butter, the all-pervasive influence on Glass Swords is prog rock - both in the screaming guitar-style solos that cut though several of its tracks and in its commitment to pure, unfettered excess. Rustie's vision, though, is far more successful in integrating its consistent elements into a coherent and involving listen. Just as with the rest of his music, Glass Swords shows just the right amount of restraint to prevent total disarray. Even if the album weren't half as much fun as it is, that feat would be worthy of celebration in itself.
--Rory Gibb
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
After taking shape in the studio over the course of the past two years, ‘Glass Swords’ arrives, and as the otherworldly landscape of the album artwork suggests, it is epic and alien.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
Trying to describe Rustie's sound would take a while, 'Glass Swords' is a mash-up of everything thats good and bad and worse still in music and video games in the last 30 years, glossed over with the most shiny 1980's sheen you could imagine. Imagine snorting a kilo of Haribo's and you might have some idea where Rustie is coming from.
The album is a frantic mess, when it works its pretty special, but when it doesn't its annoyingly bad. 'Hover traps', 'City Star' and 'After Light' is Rustie on form, perfectly balancing a dizzying array of sugar-coated musical styles with supreme skill, his production skills really come to the fore. But the rest of the album is a self-indulgent mess, using an array of digital excesses bordering on the ridiculous. And it's such a fine line that Rustie has cut, so many tracks fall from the sublime over the edge to fluorescent meltdown.
'Glass Swords' is probably the most in-your-face record you will hear all year, be prepared for a technicolour onslaught, at its best it's as candy-floss pixel-perfectly formed as you could dream of. As refreshing as this album is, Rustie could have done with not throwing everything into the musical melting pot all the time. 'Glass Swords' does not feel of its time, but unfortunately its myriad influences are what lets it down, chiefly the 1980's technicolor sound. The flashy synth chords and slap-bass samples just start to annoy you, in fact the whole 80's synth funk smacks of naff. Its as if he's trying to out-do his Glaswegian funk-bass mate Hudson Mohawke.
"Glass Swords' is all about the rush, the energy, amped to the max with no let-up. If you can handle 40 minutes of such high-octane euphoria, you'll love this album. But for me, Rustie is trying too hard, using too many ideas, and ends up confusing himself and us in the process.
The album is a frantic mess, when it works its pretty special, but when it doesn't its annoyingly bad. 'Hover traps', 'City Star' and 'After Light' is Rustie on form, perfectly balancing a dizzying array of sugar-coated musical styles with supreme skill, his production skills really come to the fore. But the rest of the album is a self-indulgent mess, using an array of digital excesses bordering on the ridiculous. And it's such a fine line that Rustie has cut, so many tracks fall from the sublime over the edge to fluorescent meltdown.
'Glass Swords' is probably the most in-your-face record you will hear all year, be prepared for a technicolour onslaught, at its best it's as candy-floss pixel-perfectly formed as you could dream of. As refreshing as this album is, Rustie could have done with not throwing everything into the musical melting pot all the time. 'Glass Swords' does not feel of its time, but unfortunately its myriad influences are what lets it down, chiefly the 1980's technicolor sound. The flashy synth chords and slap-bass samples just start to annoy you, in fact the whole 80's synth funk smacks of naff. Its as if he's trying to out-do his Glaswegian funk-bass mate Hudson Mohawke.
"Glass Swords' is all about the rush, the energy, amped to the max with no let-up. If you can handle 40 minutes of such high-octane euphoria, you'll love this album. But for me, Rustie is trying too hard, using too many ideas, and ends up confusing himself and us in the process.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Trying to describe Rustie's sound would take a while, 'Glass Swords' is a mash-up of everything thats good and bad and worse still in music and video games in the last 30 years, glossed over with the most shiny 1980's sheen you could imagine. Imagine snorting a kilo of Haribo's and you might have some idea where Rustie is coming from.
The album is a frantic mess, when it works its pretty special, but when it doesn't its annoyingly bad. 'Hover traps', 'City Star' and 'After Light' is Rustie on form, perfectly balancing a dizzying array of sugar-coated musical styles with supreme skill, his production skills really come to the fore. But the rest of the album is a self-indulgent mess, using an array of digital excesses bordering on the ridiculous. And it's such a fine line that Rustie has cut, so many tracks fall from the sublime over the edge to fluorescent meltdown.
'Glass Swords' is probably the most in-your-face record you will hear all year, be prepared for a technicolour onslaught, at its best it's as candy-floss pixel-perfectly formed as you could dream of. As refreshing as this album is, Rustie could have done with not throwing everything into the musical melting pot all the time. 'Glass Swords' does not feel of its time, but unfortunately its myriad influences are what lets it down, chiefly the 1980's technicolor sound. The flashy synth chords and slap-bass samples just start to annoy you, in fact the whole 80's synth funk smacks of naff. Its as if he's trying to out-do his Glaswegian funk-bass mate Hudson Mohawke.
"Glass Swords' is all about the rush, the energy, amped to the max with no let-up. If you can handle 40 minutes of such high-octane euphoria, you'll love this album. But for me, Rustie is trying too hard, using too many ideas, and ends up confusing himself and us in the process.
The album is a frantic mess, when it works its pretty special, but when it doesn't its annoyingly bad. 'Hover traps', 'City Star' and 'After Light' is Rustie on form, perfectly balancing a dizzying array of sugar-coated musical styles with supreme skill, his production skills really come to the fore. But the rest of the album is a self-indulgent mess, using an array of digital excesses bordering on the ridiculous. And it's such a fine line that Rustie has cut, so many tracks fall from the sublime over the edge to fluorescent meltdown.
'Glass Swords' is probably the most in-your-face record you will hear all year, be prepared for a technicolour onslaught, at its best it's as candy-floss pixel-perfectly formed as you could dream of. As refreshing as this album is, Rustie could have done with not throwing everything into the musical melting pot all the time. 'Glass Swords' does not feel of its time, but unfortunately its myriad influences are what lets it down, chiefly the 1980's technicolor sound. The flashy synth chords and slap-bass samples just start to annoy you, in fact the whole 80's synth funk smacks of naff. Its as if he's trying to out-do his Glaswegian funk-bass mate Hudson Mohawke.
"Glass Swords' is all about the rush, the energy, amped to the max with no let-up. If you can handle 40 minutes of such high-octane euphoria, you'll love this album. But for me, Rustie is trying too hard, using too many ideas, and ends up confusing himself and us in the process.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I feel inspired to write a review after listening to this CD a few times now. I am not much of a writer and I don't suppose or propose to do any other reviews unless something very unusually good comes along. The other reviews capture some of the qualities of the music. Yes - it is very glossy. Some of the synth sounds used will remind you of the 80's, some will remind you of rave hoovers and some are just plain crazy.
I was stuck in a traffic jam having just purchased this, so I put it into the CD player..... the cars in front and behind must have thought I was having a fit or something. I was smiling all the way home and listened to it around three times - although arrived home with a bit of a headache.
I suspect this CD will be like Marmite to many - you'll either love it or hate it. I found the tunes intelligent and thoroughly enjoyable. The production is crisp, I find the tempo a good 'head nodding' tempo and the sounds and instrumentation are crazy (but not in my opinion a mess). It is very noisy and full-on / relentless but for me personally very very enjoyable. Not normally the type of music I listen to at all - and I suspect there aren't too many other albums like this around.
Thank-you Rustie for doing something different that put a smile on my face!
I was stuck in a traffic jam having just purchased this, so I put it into the CD player..... the cars in front and behind must have thought I was having a fit or something. I was smiling all the way home and listened to it around three times - although arrived home with a bit of a headache.
I suspect this CD will be like Marmite to many - you'll either love it or hate it. I found the tunes intelligent and thoroughly enjoyable. The production is crisp, I find the tempo a good 'head nodding' tempo and the sounds and instrumentation are crazy (but not in my opinion a mess). It is very noisy and full-on / relentless but for me personally very very enjoyable. Not normally the type of music I listen to at all - and I suspect there aren't too many other albums like this around.
Thank-you Rustie for doing something different that put a smile on my face!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
