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Artist.....: Freestylers
Album......: Pressure Point
Type.......: Album
Genre......: Beat
Style......: Breakbeat, Electro
Label......: Freskanova
CatalogNr..: FNTCD6
Url........: http://www.ruffnett.com
Rel.date...: 14.12.2006
Str.date...: 00.00.2001
Source.....: CDDA
Grabber....: EAC 0.95.4
Encoder....: Lame 3.97 --APS
Quality....: VBRkbps / 44,1kHz / Joint-Stereo
Tracks.....: 1
Size.......: 88,2 MB
Length.....: 72:03 min
______________________________________________________________________________
Tracklist
01. Freestylers - Intro
02. Freestylers - Now Is The Time
03. Freestylers - London Sound (feat. Tenor Fly)
04. Freestylers - Told You So (feat. Petra)
05. Freestylers - Bad Boy Love (feat. Navigator)
06. Freestylers - Bass Odyssey
07. Freestylers - Calling (feat. Valerie M)
08. Freestylers - Phenomenon One (feat. Tenor Fly)
09. Freestylers - Broadcast Channels (feat. The Cardinal)
10. Freestylers - Blowin Ya Brainz
11. Freestylers - Weekend Song (feat. Tenor Fly)
12. Freestylers - Get Down Massive (feat. Navigator)
13. Freestylers - Rumours Of War (feat. Navigator)
14. Freestylers - Signs (feat. Tenor Fly & Spanner Banner)
Total Time: 72:03
______________________________________________________________________________
Release Notes
--== Release ==--
I've been looking for the older albums of Freestylers and realized that they
are really hard to get. That's why I decided to get them from my friends. I
thougt some of you would appreciate these older albums too, so here's a new
PsyCZiNT release. Enjoy!
I decided to do mix & cue because of a slight crossfades between some tracks.
Don't worry - you won't notice it at all with the great CUE player plugin for
Winamp http://etono.cplusplus.se/cueplay
--== Biography ==--
Freestylers' sound is exactly as their name suggests: a heady blend of brash,
hip-hop-inspired grooves resulting in a hypersonic amalgamation that knows no
barriers. Born and raised in London, a city steeped in British, West Indian,
African, and Asian influences, producers Aston Harvey and Matt Cantor, don't
believe in being confined to musical styles. Though breakbeats lay the
foundation for their music, anything can enter the mix: drum & bass, dancehall
vocals, house rhythms, electro and hip-hop. Flitting between the grooves of
dance, reggae and hip-hop styles, Freestylers craft a raw yet infectious aural
melting pot that shakes dance floors and headphones around the globe.
Pressure Point updates the Freestylers' sound for 2002. As the follow-up to
the band's influential debut We Rock Hard, which sold more than 150,000
copies in the U.S. alone and saw the group repeatedly tour the States with a
10-piece band, Pressure Point successfully mines two decades of hip-hop and
dance music for hip-shaking rhythms and deep, emotion-baring soul. "We didn't
want to make a We Rock Hard Pt. 2," says Aston. "Being DJ/producers we're
influenced by the music that's happening, especially with dance music because
it moves so quickly in England. We wanted to do something in our own distinct
style so we used influences that we had hints of on the first album but made
it harder and clubbier, and used the [early rave] influences from 1989-91."
Pressure PointÆs cohesive cross-genre pollination indeed makes it one of the
year's best dance albums. "Get Down Massive" kicks in with two-step rhythms
and hyper-speed breaks as Navigator's chatty vocals get the party started
right. Reminiscent of Shaggy and Fatboy Slim hanging together on the Ibiza
beach, "Weekend Song," the album's first single, is funky pop gone dancehall
courtesy of Tenor Fly. "Now Is the Time"'s deep electro and potent sub-bass
further demonstrates the Freestylers' versatility--deep, party-rockin',
soulful and pop savvy at once. The energetic, "Blowin Ya Brainz," with its
old-school rave vibe and block-rockin' beats, gives Prodigy a run for its
money. And the addition of vocalists Valerie M (on the soulful groover
"Calling") and Petra Jean Philipson (on the soul-rock "Told You So")
complement the album's all-over-the-map musical panache. Producer/singer
Spanna Banner also brings more dancehall flavor to the mix, toasting on
"Signs," the album's reggae finale.
Back in 1998, after America had coined "electronica" as the next big thing,
the Freestylers were about to release their debut, We Rock Hard, a big beat
album that encapsulated the diverse sounds Aston and Matt had been listening
to since their youth--mainly hip-hop and electro. The band's popularity soared
after the release of album highlights such as "B-Boy Stance" and "Ruffneck,"
allowing the band to criss-cross the world for two years, earning props for
their charismatic gigs. The video for the infectious "Here We Go" was even
granted MTV Buzzworthy status.
Fans and critics alike responded overwhelmingly to the bands debut effort.
Rolling Stone said, "...when it comes to electronica, we want instant
gratification, big hooks and beats, stoopid-fresh funkiness and little fuzz
about art. LondonÆs Freestylers fit the bill." Alternative Press stated,
"Unlike many young British dance producers, Freestylers have earned the
respect of some of musicÆs most revered innovators." While Mixer proclaimed,
"A perfect combination of old school hip-hop, new school breakbeat and good
times best describes U.KÆs Freestylers."
But reinventing the old-school for the new-school came naturally to Aston and
Matt. Back in the early '80s, Aston was a disaffected youth in the London
suburbs, studying piano and making stop-start mixtapes. After accepting a job
in a recording studio, he started producing drum & bass, early hardcore and
then house. "I've made everything really, apart from jazz and skiffle," Aston
says, laughing.
Like Aston, Matt also grew up listening to old-school hip-hop and electro,
then got into acid house and the early rave tunes. But Matt kept it a little
too real, getting arrested for graffiti at age 14. Gaining inspiration from
influences such as Public Enemy, Arthur Baker, Frankie Knuckles, Mantronix and
Prodigy, he soon became involved in a breakbeat project called Cut & Paste, in
addition to some work for Freskanova before having a chart hit with a house
project called Strike. It was then that Matt and Aston found themselves
working in the same recording studio complex. "Matt had already had a big hit
in England," Aston says. "We were both making house music at the time and we
were both getting bored of making the same old thudding beat, so we started
doing more tunes under the name 'Freestylers' and it became bigger than we
ever imagined."
In addition to Freestylers, Matt and Aston still manage to DJ every weekend
all over the world. They also continue to do remixes, including, most
recently, projects for Soul Hooligan (a new act on Madonna's label Maverick)
and Azzido Da Bass (who had a massive dance hit last year with "Doom's
Night"). With Pressure Point, Freestylers have earned themselves a new title:
Fine purveyors of this year's best party soundtrack.
____________________________________________________ Psychedelic Cyber Zone __
est. 2001