CD Description
Welcome to Return to Forever's 7th Galaxy, recast in trip-hop clothing. Universal Being, the sublime joint project of multi-aliased Max Brennan (Maxwell House, Fretless AZM) and partner Rupert Brown, takes oddball electronic pastiche and grafts it into a mixture of slowed-down fusion and gangly '70s funk.
Tracks such as "Brilliant Pebbles" sound thick and viscous, as though they're coated in caramel or audio jelly. Tumbling hip-hop beats collide with steaming hi-hat fills, flanged horns, and drippy electronics that ooze seductively out of the speakers. "Europa" plays with a new, mutant strain of space dub, all snapping snare and cymbal cracks and buzzing Moogs. "Crop" probes even deeper into space, segueinginto the rough and tumble trip traps of "Bunti-Strata", six-plus minutes of gelatinous fusion funk. Universal Being's under-bedding of soft synth noise cushions your descent and envelops you completely, so that plunging headlong into the atmosphere of JUPITER is like falling into a bright red beanbag chair.