An album full of ideas, energy, colours, rhythms and more id
Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 02/27/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album absolutely put everything else into the shade when it was released. It features an amazing collection of musical ideas and experiments. Oh, BTW, it IS a Hip Hop album!
Unlike many other Hip Hop releases from this time, indeed, unlike many albums of any Pop or Rock genre, which were released at this time, Mantronix exhibit an incredible level of creativity and daring. Yes, there is rapping, but it is the instrumental aspects of this album which astonished and delighted me. Kurtis Mantronik would do things like exchange the bass and snare drums - sampling a snare and then dropping the sound down an octave or two and making it serve as the bass drum and then sampling a bass drum and pushing its sound up an octave or two and have it coming in on the 2nd and 4th beats, replacing the expected snare sound.
This is just one of the many interesting and unique aspects of this album.
I remember reading a review of this album at the time, which suggested that this album presented the sound of the future raiding the music junk of the past.
To many modern listeners, "Music Madness" won't surprise, because many of the things started by Mantronix have since become ordinary parts of contemporary music. So this album needs to be listened to in perspective - it was progressive and iconclastic in its time.
Think of Stockhausen and Musique Concrète with a Hip Hop beat!
Wild stuff!"
A Worthy Addition
KC | Detroit | 03/30/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In all seriousness this particular disc is worth it.
It is a mighty short program and some of it misses the mark, but when it does hit its a clean, clear and strong shot.
'We Control The Dice' is in the same league as the best of Rakim lyric-wise and the beats\music is on point too.
Sometimes "Music Madness" does tend to lean toward house and techno but don't let that deter you.
If you can dig 'Hardcore HipHop' from their first release then you shouldn't have any problems with this.
My only complaint is that there aren't ANY extra (bonus) cuts and no info at all is included with the booklet.
This is a re-release in the strictest sense, get it while its still available.
"