What happened to these guys....
pete meihuizen | Irvine California | 09/06/2002
(1 out of 5 stars)
"i am a huge pork fan[though i believe they are still on tritone now]. and fila used to be one of their best on the label! old codes new chaos is still a HUGE album, it holds up against all kinds of electronic music today. luck be a weirdo...they used to be fantastic.and now i feel they've taken it to a new low...power clown was what seemed to be experimental...then touch of cloth seemed to bring it back. but jump leads is aweful!the album opens with a style they just don't do well. it almost seems as though they are jumping on the boards of canada band wagon with the sounds they chose....and in track 9 nightfall, the blatant use of korg ms2000 presets "icefield" is just plain bad. it doesn't even fit the track.granted there are some really good moments on the album. but they are just that...moments. ex: the 6:29 - 6:50 mark of nightfall. awesome. but what is with the line "from my belly....my rotund belly"? so i could not give it a better rating than what i did.fila are amazing...they should just stick to what they do best.sorry i was so hard on em....i was just massively disappointed."
Trippy synth stuff
Enrique Torres | San Diegotitlan, Califas | 07/10/2003
(3 out of 5 stars)
"If you like jazzy electronica as I do then you will probably enjoy this CD. It is not exactly ground breaking work, or earth shaterring music that will leave you stunned but it is good enough. It is one of those change of pace discs in the rotation where the skip button might be used; in other words not every track is a winner. Let's be honest, what one person likes is not necessarily what another may like. If the vocals don't appeal to you there are enough dreamy bits of music to set your mind floating into the neither neither land of audio bliss. Some of the music sounds dated but most of it is revitalized to create a modern ambience that is a laid back groove. This is the type of music that flows through you and then suddenly grabs you with some imaginative musical passages. "DNA" is one such track where the unassuming sythns suddendly are highlighted by world beat tribal like vocals that grab your attention and make you listen closer. "We build arks" is a bit of soulful singing that has an acid jazz feel and works remarkably well for my tastes. The said song has a retro feel, sort of a Earth Wind and Fire revisted. Another song with vocals is "Nightfall" and it has a trip hop jazzy feel that compliments the soulful vocals that are quite pleasing. The instrumental songs are dominant throughout (7 of 11 tracks) and sound even better with headphones to catch all the little details of the studio. The last song on the disc, entitled "The Green Green Grass of Homegrown" sounds a little country, almost folkish, complete with harmonica and accordian and is a rather odd song to include on the disc but somehow works as a fitting ending to a disc of mixed variety. All in all it is a pretty decent CD, not a complete musical statement but rather a fragmented album with hits and misses. Not exactly the place to start with Fila Brazillia but it does showcase the diversity of these two musians and programmers."
Mere delight for intellectual snobs!!!
jazz_of_prodigyzone | Sofia, Bulgaria | 07/18/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Fila's Jump Leads is absolutely excellent. However to comprehend it, you'll definitely need a large musical background. You have to have a grain of that old notorious British sense of humour as well to really enjoy this album.It's amazing - a mere delight to your mind and senses. Truly complicated and at the same time easy to listen to. It's an enjoyable labyrinth of sounds and tunes you feel you know from somewhere else. Fila Brazillia are truly great jugglers. There are many melody and rhythm 'winks' to a good number of fellow musicians. I could not but smile when recognized FB's picking at Lenny Cravitz, Air, Plaid. The texts may give a pretty good time too. The drumbeats, basslines, synths and strings are really exquisite.Though there is practically everything in this album, Fila manage to hold it their style - smart, slightly hushed, mild and moody. One of the rarest treasures for the mind music searchers."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
