Roni Size - Take Kontrol

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  • It's reassuring that a new Reprazent album will be following Roni Size's first solo LP in a decade. Without that to look forward to, it would be hard not to see Take Kontrol as a middle finger to old fans who have loved the drum & bass pioneer for records like Reprazent's New Forms, it's under-rated 2000 follow-up In The Mode or the more dance floor-focused sounds of his seminal Full Cycle label. Back then, Size was one of the few producers commanding the respect of both sides of the drum & bass divide: the "intelligent jungle" pseudo-sophisticates and the tear-out crews. Take Kontrol is aimed squarely at an audience who never had a chance to argue over Peshay versus Ray Keith because they hadn't been born yet. In his RA Exchange, Size said he wants to appeal to 16-21 year olds "who've never heard of Roni Size" and, true to his word, this album feels like a calculated attempt at winning their affections. You could forgive Size for wanting to play for teenagers that actually dance rather than 30-somethings waiting for "Brown Paper Bag." You might even look past his replacing the swinging funk of his techiest rollers with a sound so compressed it sounds like it's been through a car-crusher. But what makes Take Kontrol truly unforgivable is the garish EDM coating. And the vocals. Oh God, the vocals. The star cast of singers on 2004's Return To V yielded mixed results, but here the end product is uniformly awful, whether it's long-time collaborator Dynamite MC on the title track's sub-Prodigy pastiche, or the relative unknowns like Pete Josef, whose earnest folky vocal on "Final Day" is trampled by a drum-roll, then kicked into a crushingly predictable drop. As for poor Natasha Barnes on "Power"—well, imagine Tiësto's pop-trance remixed by DJ Fresh. Then go and have a lie down. Still, this means the instrumentals are thrown into a comparatively flattering light, and there are some half-decent cuts here. The moody "Silent Strings" is probably the closest to Size's earlier work, and it's difficult not to be thrilled by "Mish Mash"'s ravey stabs—at least at first. But listening to the album's 24 tracks feels like being on the same roller-coaster time and time again—exciting for a bit, then you feel sick, and finally just bored.
  • Tracklist
      01. Final Day feat. Pete Josef 02. Made In Korea 03. She Rocks feat. Jonni Slater 04. Take Kontrol feat. Dynamite MC 05. Power feat. Natasha Barnes 06. Big Bashy feat. Jay Wilcox 07. Time Out 08. Complicated feat. Tita Lau 09. Mish Mash feat. Jay Wilcox 10. Running Around My Head feat. Tita Lau 11. Silent Strings 12. Freaky (Are You Up For It) 13. The Big Hurt 14. Funny Bone 15. Just a Little feat. Jay Wilcox 16. Good Times
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