SittingOvation

ill.gates – Autopirate [album - MultiCD006]

Posted by alex on October 17th, 2008

MySpace love – http://www.myspace.com/thephatconductor
WWW love – http://www.thephatconductor.com

You know when you discover a great track, or album and you think to yourself “I wonder why I hadn’t noticed these guys before”? Well that’s what I’m getting from ill.gates’ incredibly well produced album “Autopirate”

It’s hard to pinpoint a genre for this full-length from Toronto’s madcap producer (also known as The Phat Conductor), but it most definately crosses lines between dubstep, breaks, electro and hip hop. Normally I’d shy away from a genre list like that – but I urge you to give this a chance. From the word go I was converted.

The beatifully chopped samples throughout “Colours” bring a little bit of Summer back in to my life now that Autumn is more or less becoming Winter rather rapidly (At least here in Scotland anyway). And with a broken beat style hip hop flow this track takes is deeper in to an album which I never expected to explore.

Maisa spits some interesting lyrics over the top of “Irma Vep” which has a brassy bassline and an electro hip-hop drumloop throughout. I didn’t take so much to the raps, but I still enjoyed the sung chorus element, and I’ve got that “boom boom clap” stuck in my head now.

“Collateral Damage” brings us something feeling slightly more upbeat with a nice balance of glitched beats, bassline and high-end synth/samples. The flow from this in to “Egg Plantation” too is nicely done, and the track becomes a little more like a Modeselektor remix with chopped up vocals keeping things intreaguing.

“Sweatshop” is by far the standout dubstep ‘banger’ with a rather filthy bassline sitting under a nice break, occasionally pitching up for that vital “ooh, that was a bit cheeky” moment.

“Have Dreadlocks Will Travel” sees something of a more relaxed number, where our friend gates takes a little more melody onboard, to offset the bassline perfectly. The beat becomes more like a breaks track – but never strays far enough from the norm to become a massive breakdown-buildup tune. This one seems happy drifting rather happily along. And I’m not sure I’d have it any other way!

“The Skizza” takes a bit of a hip hop vibe, with some breaksy sounds and effectively sticks them in a blender with som synths. Out pours this mixed up track with an almost nervous stutter of a beat and some great space-filler synth work that reminds me a little of some of Martyn’s upper end sounds.

“Scratchdisc” lives up to its title with plenty scratch work, sample cutting and some nice sub-bass to have the whole thing bounce along, not too far from the likes of “The Wizeguys” (if that’s a credible enough comparison to make)

The next track is a remix of Myagi’s track “Heads n Tails” which is a sort of skanky, bass-heavy hip-hop type affair. The bassline is a wonderous thing, and it really stands out on this track.

“Prickles n Goo” has this hip hop beat which keeps threatening to go all drum & bass on your ass, but remains firmly groovable under the altogether pleasant vocals sung over the top.

“Adaggio For Disney Hall And Coffee Grinder” brings us the penultimate outing on the release. and sees a chopped dubstep beat, complete with abrasive saw bass throughout, but also riding alongside some cracking japanese drum hits, and miriad of fading horn samples.

And what emotionally charged, beat-fuelled release would be complete without a rant. “Net Nutrality Rantapella” gives us all a quick chopped up education on the rather backward plans to change net nutrality. You can make your own mind up on whether this was necessary.

All in all – I’m feeling rather positive about the album. It’s well produced, all the clicks crunches and bleeps are crisp and clear and the bass rings loud and clear throughout. There’s a couple of points where I may have reached for that skip button, but far and few between on what promises to be a stellar release.

Apparently you can file this under “urban / Hip Hop / Breakbeat / Dubstep / Trip Hop” – so there goes the filing system out the window!

“Autopirate” will be seeing global release through Muti Music on November 19th 2008