Eskmo - Pic courtesy of Ninja Tune
The debut album from highly respected producer “Eskmo” is certainly a thought provoking affair, and the man can certainly produce pretty unique sounding records. Heavily processed vocoder vocals, percussive sound effects and subliminal sub-bass are some of the many characteristics of these tunes that are enjoyable. The general territory is a sort of hybrid of bleep hop and ethereal dubstep (a la Burial) with the emphasis on sloooooow, so don’t expect any bangers. Mogadon-Pop or Acid-RnB anyone ? That said, Eskmo can make a mean tune when he wants, such as on “The Melody” (which I fucking love), but that’s probably because the simpleton in me responds appreciatively when offered some mid-range wobble.
The problem I have with this album is that is just too “muso”. Wannabe producers and hipsters will doubtless twat on about this album, but there is too little striking content on it for me…in short it fails the whistle test. In my humble opinion, Eskmo wants to throw in a few melodies and the odd bit of structure, then he will be working with a full palate. Till then go and check out “The Melody” and the beautiful “Siblings”.
Kim Monaghan
