February 24th, 2010 | By Cold Busted
The ‘Hard Times’ LP from Cold Busted label owner Vitamin D is a Trip Hop soulful 20 track experience with original yet vintage sounds and techniques accentuated by the excellent analog Mastering. Done by Mark Dann from NYC, analog gear as well as ½” inch 30 ips analog tape were used in the process, bringing out the warm and overall feel of this LP. Fresh Hip Hop beats and a cunning bass kick off the first track ‘No Love for Hard Times’ with powerful samples and builds. Displaying a keen dexterity of styles throughout the album, Vitamin D hits us with songs like ‘The Drop By’ with suave chilled beats, and an infectious gangster melody. ‘Rumble In the Park’ picks up the tempo with soulful hard breaks, exciting and expressive this is one for the break dancers; as is the following track ‘Something Smells Funky’ with a get down and boogie bass, organ keys and active beats. Enticing and slower songs like ‘Fire Island In Dub’ and ‘Chilling In The Land Of Make Believe’ showcase relaxing rhythms, drums and reggae organic sounds complete with warm analog crackles. ‘That’s One Sly Fox’ showcases energetic, frisky beats and amazing drum work. ‘Rotating the Hips’ has a jazzy bass and subtle beat repeats, filtering and a steel guitar sample making for a relaxing sunny track. Finally, ‘Theme from 1971’ with it’s progressive, soulful feel of clever arrangements ends this vivid, idiosyncratic Trip Hop album. ‘Hard Times’ from Vitamin D is cinematic, well executed, and diverse, encourages and oozes expression all with those much appreciated warm subtle sounds and pops. What’s more, the entire album is getting remixed by 20 different artists, which will be released August 2010!
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4 new remixes of Gramatik’s ‘Tearin’ It Up’ taken from the Street Bangerz Vol. 2 release.
