i hope the album lives up to it expectations, good luck MM

What I could listen (and dance) in Benicassim told me yes, it will live up to its expectations. I remember 'I need Air' (as told by the MC) as being totally spectacular.

They were rubbish at the Big Chill.

I remember their first tune 'Alright' was stunning, exactly what I wanted from dubstep - its was futuristic, synthy and weird without sacrificing dancefloor appeal.

Regardless of the rest of the album, I can't believe that the same trio then came up with I Need Air.

Benga and Skream I can understand, but Artwork??? Pull yourself together mate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k10B1TwgN2U

Sorry, but I still don't get what is so terribly terrible and heretic about 'I need air'. It's electronic pop, excelently crafted. Maybe London>Ibiza always, that's what you try to say?

Anyway, excellent review. Makes absolutely clear what the album is about.

"I need air" sucks big time

Did i read this right?

The band are called "Magnetic Man", but theres 3 blokes? does anyone else find this strange? Did the pony tails at the record company not suggest that it might be a good idea to use the plural form of man? Or am I the only one around here not to be educated in Croydon?

Bands with several members but a singular proper noun name, and vice versa, have been around for decades.

my fave was thelone rangers,from that film airheads. That was funny. Not quite as funny as magnetic man though- bellends.

@ davebits,

If you're going to comment on this purely from a Iexical point of view, it might be worth considering a few things. To begin with, first person singular should always be written with a capital letter, and I think that by 'right' you actually mean 'correctly'. You should also think about beginning sentences with a capital letter, whatever your hairstyle (ponytail is one word by the way). 'theres' [sic] lacks an apostrophe denoting the possessive, therefore rendering your sentence ambiguous at best, slapdash at worst. You may feel like you received a superior education outside the environs of Croydon, however it appears your own grasp of the written English language leaves much to be desired.

Because there are three blokes in this band, I think this should actually be 'slapdesh'. Or have the ponytails at the record company got to you too?

Ah, and I've now just read your final paragraph - good point, well made.

i need air is a big tune. I don't really want to like it but I can't help myself. And in terms of hitting the mainstream but without selling out your heritage they've pretty much smashed it with that track.

Not heard the rest of the album though...

can't stand this. popstep, pseudo d'n'b, ibiza trance and contemporary rubbish r'n'b with cheesy girly vocals over it sent through autotune. horrible.

This album is a shame.

What about 'popstep', 'pseudo dnb', 'ibiza trance' 'cheesy girly vocals over it sent through autotune' and 'rnb' is wrong exactly?

this isnt for me

hmmm. Not sure about this. Don't like the music. But fair play they'll be main stage performing at some pretty big festivals globally on the back of it. Although not really sure what they actually do in their 'live' performance.

mate, i just made a casual post on a forum, these guys are actually going around the world calling themselves "Magnetic Man"!

by the way, seeing as your into linguistics, how do you spell tosser?

@risingson: the wrong in it is simply that i don't like it. and i am free to express it.

right on, good luck, elktropop whatever yea, if skream and benga can skim off some booty$$ from the mainstream music machine all the power to them-smart enough to know you only get a couple chances at it, as underground innovators n heroes they certainly have earned it!

Honest work... The point here is... They came from a pioneer Dubstep background... But they produced a good pop album without the pretension to sound like Dubstep... This is not a crime... Or it is?

@davebits
it's cos Magnetic Men sounds a bit gay perhaps?

How did you cope with the anomalies within 'Two Lone Swordsmen"? is Joy Orbison really allowed to be male? Are Radiohead not really 5 louche public school oldboys but a bodiless individual who you can listen to the football on?

ANDREW RYCE ...
I think 31/2 is too low score for this Album ...

this album takes dubstep and this sound to another level ...

NOT AGREE WITH UR OPINION //

At least should be 4/5

I'm not into dubstep at all, and if I knew who were in the group I would have probably never bothered, but I actually really like this... like a lot. It's absolutely coherent and reminds me of some of the oddball artist albums that I would randomly pick up when first getting into electronic music.

I don't begrudge them going for mainstream popularity and this is actually sort of better than the Skream album I absolutely loathed. I actually think the out and out pop tunes with no pretenses work much better than the terrible mashups of dnb-pop [Boiling Water, Perfect Stranger - ugh] and dubstep-pop [Crossover - ugh].

On the bright side, maybe this will make people who've never heard much of dubstep go out and discover some of the better artists working in the genre. But as far as this album is considered, this is basically dubstep for people who don't like dubstep.

Sounds like SHIT to me.donno whats worse for my ears this,Rusko, or Caspa

that isn't very good, magnetric man stinks!!! i prefer benga and skream when they release their albums solo

and NOW that i've listened to the album closely, I like it. It's true that 'Perfect Stranger' is much better than the rest of the tracks, with that break sample and a very good female vocal, and the rest is much into what the most 'cacophonous' (I liked that) tunes these people used in their mix. Some of them are quite good, like mad. Others, like The Bug, does not interest me that much. It's like a solid work, but again, as it happened with the Skream album, it's a bit of too mundane to become a crossover hit: 'I need air' worked beautifully in summer festivals, but I think that's it.

Anyway, I still don't see what's necessarily bad in having some oldschool breaks in the album (you know, zomby and silkie used them and no one cried about it), or having a pop-oriented attitude which could appeal broader audience. I see this kind of thinking as kind of ... I don't know, I personally passed that 'it's massive, it's shit' phase long ago and just enjoy music for what it is. Oh, this album, a 7/10 for me too.

this is among the worst albums ive heard this year...actually worse than the aeroplane one..which says alot


this is radio friendly dubstep horse crap

seriously lame

the only new direction they r goin for is mtv / radio friendly garbage


puke

As far as I'm away, MM was never supposed to be a big project. 3 of dubsteps originators got together, did the Alright, Whats Happening? tune, and started playing it out without telling anyone who it was by, the idea being that 'Magnetic Man' was some anonymous producer.

They never intended to get Arts Council grants, or play festivals, or have chart success.

Its nothing to do with being educated in Croydon.

My only beef is how good it could have been. Remember techno artist Grain on Fat Cat records? Especially the awesome Untitled track on the Across Uneven Terrain compilation? That was Artwork.

MM could have been so much better.

As someone who is generally not a fan of hardcore dubstep (or dubstep in general) I thoroughly enjoyed 'Mad' and 'The Bug'...their essential mix was also massive so these guys have a future for sure

Everything.

there is nothing wrong with this album... For a mainstream album to the masses, its great! They stuck to their principles , didn't sell out, and all the tracks are listenable, Just think ....would you rather someone hear Magnetic Man or Skrillex for their first dubstep "experience"

wow, nice tip on Grain. Quality.