4hero - play with the changes

im trying to get to grips with all their alter ego and alias work - they still seem to put out so much. some of the stuff theyve been putting out on twisted funk seems pretty good actually, not a huge diff from the new album, but more interesting, less reverential and less leaden. but they do seem to be in love with early 80s boogie at the moment dont they. theyve basically gone to that place where they only like old music it seems, or music that sounds just like old music.

Agreed.

It's a letdown that this album, almost six years later, sounds (for the most part) like leftovers.

why?

the visioneers thing was a a strange concept i thought. i know its a nice nostalgia trip for ageing b-boys like 4hero but it was just musicicans vamping and improvising off breaks that were used in hip hop tracks. why would anyone want to hear that over the original tracks that were sampled?

In isoltaion, Creating Patterns is average at best; no way is it great. When compared with 4 Hero output prior to it, it's really a massive drop in standard. I've never been so disappointed with a record as I was with that one, having always been an absolutely massive fan of all things 4 Hero / Tek 9/ Manix. I recall listening to the album for the first time with baited breath and as the
opening track began - that massive moody Egyptian sounding "Conceptions" - I thought it was going to be the best album ever. Sadly, it was spectacularly downhill from there culminating with the utterly pish "Day of the Greys" Featuring Terry Callier ( who I also really like). Seeing 4 Hero on the Mercury Music Prize one year (99 maybe?) performing "Escape That" from Two Pages, it looked like this mob were the future - now it appears they're stuck in the past.

This is written as someone who deserately wants 4 Hero to fulfil their potential, not as a diss to 4 hero in general.

On the plus side, the Shy FX mix of "Bed of Roses" is nice and Dego is a handsome man.

where dyou hear it? apparently shy fx has produced something on the new dizzee album too. the lyrics to bed of roses are quite terrible btw.

Besides, how could they have topped Two Pages? The only act I can think of that has come anywhere close for my taste is London Elektricity, but I have largely given up trying to find comparable artists.

Anyone seen them DJ? Are they any good? I'd probably enjoy this stuff with some fancy ciggerettes, whiskey and pretty people around me. I've always thought of 4hero as classy dance music, still do, but now its kind of bad classy.

I shoulda stuck with my initial feeling and said they want to make music like the people they enjoyed listening to when they were coming up. Pardon me for getting too wordy.

-- titchyschneider (titchyschneide...), January 29th, 2007 6:20 AM. (titchyschneider) (later)

there's nothing wrong with a "nice nostalgia trip" at all!! let's hear it for the ageing b-boy crew!!

fetch me my walker!!

my suspicion is that it sounds like zero7 ... am i right??

my suspicion is that it sounds like zero7 ... am i right??

Creating Patterns: one half (often excellent) wannabe Rotary Connection/one half broken beat (as good as it got in 2001)

Play With the Changes: one half (well-produced but ho-hum) wannabe Rotary Connection/one half boilerplate broken beat

Other than you end up like 90% of indie rock - inferior copies of the original. I didn't like Two Pages. It just seemed after Parallel Universe they could've given us something so much more than nu-jazz retreads inferior to the original soul and funk it took inspiration from.

"I shoulda stuck with my initial feeling and said they want to make music like the people they enjoyed listening to when they were coming up. Pardon me for getting too wordy. "

well thats exactly what they want to do but part of the problem is yeah, they get all the sounds and the production right but its all just a bit too placid or reverent a lot of the time. it feels not quite sterile but just a bit 'stiff'. plus they still cant write songs like their idols, which hasnt really helped if theyre trying to do 'proper songs' and stuff like that.

That line is the single best moment on Creating Patterns.

"Anyone seen them DJ? Are they any good? I'd probably enjoy this stuff with some fancy ciggerettes, whiskey and pretty people around me. I've always thought of 4hero as classy dance music, still do, but now its kind of bad classy."

I've seen them DJ twice and both times they've played fairly dull MAW style house. "Classy" would be a good word but definitely touching on "bad classy"

I'm in the over 30 demographic referred to above and I'm a long time fan but objectively, the quality isn't there and this record is their weakest to date. I still hope that they'll turn the corner.

Must get hold of some of those old manix tracks, and yes its a shame what happened to to 4 hero

(well not really false, more like superficial fusion)

Three Good Good, Vol. 3 sampler singles in 2006, produced mostly by the usual suspects. Anyone heard them?

"i had a dream last night i found a detroit techno album i'd never heard before! it was called ... ok i forget already what it was called but the cover was a photo of the moonscape with a green filter, and it was a collaboration between dego and ... someone from detroit. also several of the tracks had morgan geist co-production."

cousin cockroach- this ain't tom n' jerry

Tangentially:
S/D: the OTHER broken beat

-- vahid (vfoz...) (webmail), July 17th, 2005

haha that worked out real well, didn't it

-- acid waffle house (wt...), February 2nd, 2007 1:11 PM. (dubplatestyle) (later) (link)

For one of us, at least -- somewhat tellingly it's the one who likely never has and never will look at this thread!

(I say this as the self-appointed ex-ombudsman of House Is a Feeling.)

someone doesn't find them dull?

also Two Pages suxxxx

*points walking stick triumphantly skyward*

*wheeze*

*stagger*

-- I Am Totally Radioactive! (masonicboom

i remember seeing a k st cl in the liner notes! o well nm.

much prefer their classicist 70s soul to their classicist 70s soul+
drum n bass fusion personally. even if it does occasionally result in poor material like the jody watley collabo.

ive been frantically trying to get more of the stuff theyve put out under aliases lately though, im sure all of it isnt 100% amazing but its a shame they havent been more succesful.

this still sounds good. its got a couple of crap songs but its also got some of their best stuff on there too. no its not futuristic in the techno sense but its still kinda progressive in the sense of forward looking soul-based music (a la broken beat) and more than that, its just got some really good songs.

It sounds like they're just trying to emulate (and i guess often imitate) their 70s soul/jazz heroes...but they do manage it quite studiously. Generally it all sounds up there with any other music of this kind from the past but without sounding particularly like anything before because it's a modern study of that music. I can imagine it being top 3 of Gilles P's Worldwine 'All Winners' list at the end of the year on that basis.

but you cant just say its emulating for all their tracks on the new album cos of the drum n bass and broken beat influence on some tracks. plus the songwriting is just the best theyve had so far.

officially wack

first time i've seen this thread. wholeheartedly agree with some of the bashing up thread. everything from 'two pages' has bored me to tearzzzzzz. having said that i loved loved their lifestlyles comp which has some great stuff on it.

however - i can't believe no one has mentioned jacobs optical stairway in this thread: http://www.discogs.com/release/74822

the first half especially, is great - some fantastic beat programming (in colab with josh wink and juan atkins). i wish they'd stuck with a more techno influenced sound and ditched the live instrumentation / jazz soul bullshit.

the 'solar feelings' 12" from that album is an old favourite. 2 supremely lush remixes from claude young. (and the j majik is nice too).

http://www.discogs.com/release/51238

As long as Two Pages has the astonishing "We Who Are Not As Others" on it it cannot really be a bad album. Although I do think they got the hang of the live/broken beat side of things better on Creating Patterns.

^^ makes me want to go buy "creating patterns"

hold it down - slightly poor lyrics aside - is excellent. good remixes too.

seriously did my brain chemistry change in 1998/99 or does anybody else agree that vast swathes of previously great electronic music talent all lost their mind around then?
also where did my copy of JOS go

still love the Dollis Hill stuff esp. "Desist" Da Black' from the '98 Metalheadz box set