TC - Watch the Ride

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  • TC landed on the drum n bass scene last year a preordained genre icon: massive logo, full-scale concert tour and a debut album (Evolution) packaged like a greatest hits anthology. Four of his singles from that album topped BBC Radio 1's dance charts and he took home Best Producer at last year's BBC1 Xtra Bass Awards. But within the notoriously fickle dnb massive, opinions are divided: savior or sellout, hotshot or hack? TC is loved by some, hated by others and envied by both, and it seems the only question that could silence all parties is: Can he DJ? If debut mix album Watch The Ride is any indication, the answer is a resounding no. Even this early it's got "least essential dnb mix of 2008" in the bag, proof that slick production doesn't necessarily go hand-in-hand with smooth mixing. Even if you think he's a skilled hand on production duties there's no denying TC's all thumbs behind the decks. The track selection, too, is embarrassing: All of last year's most obvious jump-up dnb tunes are here, looking no better with age. Clipz's 'Rubbish' in particular gets more painful with repeated listening. High Contrast's 'If We Ever' pops up too after an appearance on DJ Zinc's Watch The Ride last October and closing out HC's own, the series' next. It's a great track but caned-to-death and long overdue for a remix or two to freshen things up. Along with a sole VIP from another artist (Taxman's 'Too Bad'), TC tosses in a handful of EXCULSIVE (sic) tunes that work with wildly different results. 'The Old Texaco Garage' is a wicked old-school jungle/dubstep wobble smash-up, but is directly followed by his collaboration with Sub Focus, 'Borrowed Time,' dripping with enough trance elements to warrant TC's crowning as the Tiësto of dnb. Zinc's Watch The Ride was uneven, inconsistent and criminally short, but it was mostly forgiven by his deft, clever mixing style. TC is neither deft nor clever and has no style of his own. The tried-and-true tease is his only trick, so common in dnb it can hardly be labeled as such anymore. He takes way too long to mix between tracks, resulting in needlessly hideous transitions between perfectly decent tracks such as the oft-maligned but infectious '3rd Degree Gurns' and Logistics’ oldie-but-goodie emo-dnb hit 'Together'. Xample's badass 'Lowdown' and Sub Focus' cowbell-crazed 'Druggy' were made for each other, but about 40 seconds sooner than where TC decided. There are also crowded, grimy lead-ins to TC's own 'Deep (Roni Size VIP)' and 'Raise the Roof' that could've easily been fixed with simple re-edits. Album MC Jakes doesn't compensate for any of TC's shortcomings either, making erratic and unemphatic appearances when he's not, assumedly, spinning around on a computer chair in TC's studio. Judging from productions like 'Rockstar' and 'Fuck What You Heard', TC's got attitude to spare, but none of the DJ skills to back it up. He should have politely passed on Harmless Records' offer to do a Watch The Ride mix, and spent this year polishing the basics and building a style. As it stands, you'll find plenty better stuff than this Ride on dnbshare.com from the bedroom DJs of the world—a fact that should have them tearing out their hair in frustration. On his track 'Not a Real DJ,' TC sings: “You're a promoter and you're supposed to give me what I need to play/It's in the contract please can I have a working pair of CDJs/If you don't like that I play on CD then go and get someone else." Okay, then.
  • Tracklist
      01 Crissy Cris - Us 02 Clipz - Rubbish 03 Sub Focus - Swamp Thing 04 DJ Marky & XRS - LK (Instrumental) 05 Friction - 3rd Degree Gurns (Dub) 06 Logistics - Together 07 The Force - Faithless 08 TC - Soul Time 09 Jenna G - In Love 10 TC - The Old Texaco Garage 11 TC feat. Sub Focus - Borrowed Time (VIP) 12 Vital Elements - Gangster Sound 13 Xample - Lowdown 14 Sub Focus - Druggy 15 TC - Deep (Roni Size VIP Mix) 16 Ben Westbeech feat. Die - Get Closer (Rockers Mix) 17 Taxman - Too Bad (VIP) 18 High Contrast - If We Ever 19 Lynx - Disco Dodo 20 Monoman - Dirty Games (G Dub Remix) 21 TC feat. Jakes - Raise The Roof 22 Hazard & D Minds - Mr Happy 23 TC - Electronic 24 TC - Rockstar 25 Shimah - Enter Our World
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