About.com Rating



Labelling things is almost irresistible. It allows for easy shorthand, reference to the familiar, filing away, and all those other things that allow us to get on to the really important stuff. So when you have to stop, and think, and scratch your head (or some other body part) and try to come up with a label for something and then realize you really can't, then you stop and think about the process of labeling and what it all means.


And then the realization comes - maybe this is the really important stuff. Rarely does an album come along that pushes into these unfamiliar places, rarer still is that the case with one that's also fun to listen to. So hats off to Lorin Ashton, the driving force behind Bassnectar and this remarkable double-disc debut. Driving force, not one man band, because the list of collaborators on this disc provides Lorin the opportunity to work his magic with the sounds of some of the many folks he's met on the road during his relentless and seemingly non-stop touring.

Check out the jammy goodness of his remix of STS9's "Some Sing." Or the funky bounce of "Bursting," with Buckethead and the "vs Freq Nasty" remix of Everybody that closes the first disc. (Lorin likes to save the good stuff for last, finishing disc 2 with another killer remix, this one of HDC and KRS One's "Arrival"). But it's perhaps the opening of disc 2 that gets right to the heart of what Bassnectar is all about. While the first disc's "Intro" track invokes a children's storybook, this one is all grown up, and features a vocal sample from none other than veteran nose tweaker Noam Chomsky, who reminds us that the liberty we enjoy was redeemed at dear cost and should be treated as a responsibility, not a right.

Setting that kind of tone elevates this album from an impressive collection of electronic styles ranging from chill-out to breakbeat to DnB to glitch to IDM and a unique synthesis of all of these, to a positive Statement that reflects not only Lorin's passion about his music, but what it means to be a music maker. One with an audience not just to play to, but to join with.

There was a famous title during the 60s called "Steal This Book" which neatly captured the zeitgeist of the counterculture revolution taking place. Don't steal this record - buy it. Buy it, and support a true revolutionary working at the peak of his craft to inspire people and engage them in his work - and theirs.