Introduction
A leading light in French breakbeat and the founder of Beatsqueeze Records, Ugly Mac Beer exists in a unique world which, loosely, could be argued to include the likes of Dalek, Flying Lotus, DJ Shadow, and Aphex Twin. As such, you can expect a perma-shifting mix of lo-fi, hip-hop, and break beat, which coalesce to form soundscapes quite unlike anything else you’ll hear this year.
The Package
Pressed on gorgeous, lemon-yellow coloured vinyl, Broken Ill looks amazing. The platter is housed in a simple card sleeve with basic credits printed on the rear. The vinyl itself is housed in a plain black paper sleeve, which keeps the vinyl safe and scratch free. It’s a simple package, then, as you’d expect from an independent release, but it’s got it where it counts, the vinyl crackle-free and sounding absolutely fantastic.
Broken Ill
Opening with a short introductory number, Broken Ill draws the listener in with the simple, arpeggiated synth line of Press OK, an echoing, robotic voice repeating the title over and over. A hypnotic piece, the mood it establishes is soon turned upside down by the taut drums of Broken Ill. Part skronky hip hop, part Chemical Brothers, it’s best played at foundation-wrecking volumes, and it’s easy to imagine the track simply decimating clubs. For New Area Mynameisleonidas joins the party. Driven by a dirty bass riff and 808 drums, it’s a straight-up hip-hop rocker that picks up where Beck left off on Motherfucker, the smooth rhymes offset by the grinding bass and ever-present ringing of a mobile phone. If you think where this is going, however, you’re mistaken, because, at the track’s heart, a random post-punk oasis awaits, although the drums don’t take long to come thundering back in.
Having explored the rock-blasted hip-hop landscapes of the 90s, Broken Ill takes a step back into the 80s, with huge drum samples and post-punk guitars vying for attention on Dans Tes Yeux, which finds both Mynameisleonidas and Kara in residence. Somewhere between a Cure remix, My Bloody Valentine and Toro Y Moi, it’s a genuinely hypnotic piece, beautifully recorded, that neatly bridges several decades and genres as it goes. The heavy-duty basslines return for My Name Is Tim (ft. Op18), a dark sound clash that suddenly starts jabbering on about Dolphins. The side shoots into the present decade with the snotty Trust My Uh-Oh! (Ft. Princess Superstar), a synth-pop/hip-hop number that sounds like Melt Banana fighting Mixmaster Mike in a New York Subway.
Side 2 opens with Mynameisleonidas and Kara once again lending a helping hand on the metronomic It’s Not A Dream – a slice of darkly brilliant hip-hop that nods to the genre-hopping ways of the Beastie Boys, while bringing its own unique sense of style to the party. An album highlight, it kicks the second side off hard, and you can’t help but think that, with the right promotion, this could (and should) be HUGE. Neatly summing up a contemporary threat, AI Sucks is slashing electro-punk, driven by a treble-heavy synth beat and overlaid with the robotic voice that greeted us on Press OK.
Bastille Vichy finds new collaborators in the form of Fabrice Gilbert and Patrice Dambrine (frustration) – the stabby synths and oddly-sequenced beats layered beneath the album’s hardest-edged vocals. Things take a surprisingly NIN-turn next, with the surging synths of Broken Glass (Ft. Mynameisleonidas) edging into the industrial darkwave territory of Year Zero. With echoing vocals and an eerie atmosphere, it finds the album at its hardest, the slowly scattering beats of its conclusion suggesting a panic attack in the making. A more sanguine bassline powers the post-punk-goes-electro Wolfie, complete with contribution from the titular hound. The album spins to a halt with FAYP, which finds TINP adding vocals to a schizophrenic track that shifts from fast-paced electro to atmospheric ambient, providing the album with a suitably enigmatic conclusion.
Conclusion
Truly unique, Broken Ill finds Ugly Mac Beer exploring hip-hop and punk, electro and rock, ambient and breakbeat seamlessly across the twelve tracks on offer. With perfect production, it sounds amazing (especially on vinyl), the disparate elements somehow woven into a sonic tapestry that you just want to play over and over again. Most importantly, the record is fun, the quirky shifts and effortlessly cool delivery nodding to records like Mellow Gold and Hello Nasty – similarly genre-hopping entities that defy categorisation, while remaining endlessly playable. Honestly, this is one of those albums that you’ll want to share, because it just deserves to be heard. Something genuinely different, Broken Ill is pretty much essential listening… now go buy a copy! 10/10
