Mark One -- One Way

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Fuck me -- why didn't someone tell me about this before?

Absolutely fantastic rock hard grime with loadsa hooks and funky-as-fuck beats...

Lovin it lovin it lovin it...

As good as the Cabs' 2x45 and that's saying something...
 

redcrescent

Well-known member
I really, really rate MarkOne, though I don't know if he'd qualify as "grime" strictly speaking (even though he was on that Rephlex comp)? More like dubstep? Anyone care to clarify?
I like the way that album is spread across 3 records: first track of each is a vocal track, the rest instrumental, so its almost like 3 EPs.
 
2stepfan said:
Fuck me -- why didn't someone tell me about this before?

.

We assumed you already knew! Me and Kek-W were all over this album last year, but I guess you don't read our blogs :(

Here's what Kek wrote about it in October last year:

The new Mark One LP on Planet Mu is fucking excellent, by the way.

A nice mixture of dense, brooding, Grimey/Sub-Lo skunkstrimentals and upliftingly-grubby little shoutalongs spread across three thick slabs of vinyl. Detuned square-wave synth-sounds give an early Warp Records/Bleep vibe to a couple of tracks, while others seem to revel in oppressive, paranoid beats and orchestral-stabs worthy of mid-period Cabaret Voltaire: you can almost hear the CCTV surveillence-cameras whirring as they track your progress through grainy archive-footage of burning, boarded-up city-centres.

But forget the comparisons: the music never feels anything other than fresh, contemporary and vital: there's some 'ting for everyone.

"Anger Management" sounds like a militant Old School Arcade Game possessed by dead RnB backing-vocalists. "Came from the Deep" is straight outa Innsmouth: sludgey, submarine beats and bleeps: the inhuman fish-bastard-hybrid of Dagon and Jaws.

"The Industry" is Bolshevik Grime: a constructivist nightmare come to life, lurching around the ruins of Chernobyl on angular, stilt-like limbs, square wheels and synthetic-hydraulics.

"Ready for it" goes something like: "Hit 'em wit the sickness/Don' get me started, byoi/Jump on the chat like Bleuuuughh/Wanna get witness/tell me, are you ready for the bleeeurrrrgh/Lyrically nauseous/From the Hood to the Marshes/everyone's like: euuuurgghhh/Can't sleep no more/I see demons/It's like the whole world's plottin' and schemin'..."

Great stuff.
 

Paul Hotflush

techno head
redcrescent said:
I really, really rate MarkOne, though I don't know if he'd qualify as "grime" strictly speaking (even though he was on that Rephlex comp)? More like dubstep? Anyone care to clarify?
I like the way that album is spread across 3 records: first track of each is a vocal track, the rest instrumental, so its almost like 3 EPs.

I would say Mark One is more on the grime side, although he has done a fair few dubstep tracks.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Yes, of course, dubstep, hurried post! (I don't agree, with respect, with Paul Hotflush -- you're putting out some good tunes at the moment BTW.)

BTW I'm listening to it on CD -- and I think that's a superior way of grokking this set of music than vinyl, it's a proper ALBUM.

No I wasn't reading anyone's blogs when One Way came out -- in October (when you did that very good round up) I was busy with a new-born and working in London and before then moving house! I'm just catching up and sadly this means I've missed out on a load of stuff, especially some fabulous halfstep records... the new Digital Mystikz is good but not as good as the older tunes, or Loefah's tunes, for example, but I suspect stuff like Twisa is gone forever....

One Way is good cos it has
a) an excellent, mature ear for musical flow and sequencing combined with
b) really good production chops combined with
c) voices. Just as I really like my JA dub when it has voices on it -- yes a contradiction in terms, but think King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown -- so I really like Dubstep with some voices on it. Think back to Skream's Blackdown mix and the remixes on there -- the vocal tunes really set off the waves of steaming industrial noise.

It's much better (and I know you won't agree with this) than the plodder riddim stuff.

Above all it's not TOO industrial, and it's funky shit...
 
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secretagentgel

Well-known member
what i loved about it was it felt like an album to me. there were a few things a little more "risky" than what he might trust to a 12". and not all of the album works - there were a few moments that i didn't like. but that makes me like it more, because it's an attempt to push things forward. does that make sense?

corey
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
secretagentgel said:
what i loved about it was it felt like an album to me. there were a few things a little more "risky" than what he might trust to a 12". and not all of the album works - there were a few moments that i didn't like. but that makes me like it more, because it's an attempt to push things forward. does that make sense?
Yes. I was going to put up a track by track review -- there are a couple of instrumentals in the latter stages of the album that are pretty poor. But that doesn't matter -- it's a very complete record.
 
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