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Album Review
by SashaS
18-9-2003
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| Free*land does loads for soul-blissness |
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Free*Land: 'Now And Them'
(MarineParade)
Free*Land and the sonorific cosmic interconnectedness
The Free*Land debut album ‘Now And Them’ opening song and recent infectious single simply waves the truth about the world we live in: ‘We Want Your Soul’ lashes at the bull our ‘elders’, and the US in particular, are subjecting us to. And, God – are we in trouble?! The critical theme continues on ‘Mind Killer’ over the marvellous beats that all the warning might be lost on people simply enjoying the music.
Adam Freeland, the brainbox behind this project/outfit, is well aware of youth’s avarice for fun, sex and oblivion by any means available. The future will sort itself out, eventually, but the present is really f**ked up: from the notoriously lying politicians to the businesses that are run by morons to banks that are happy to enslave us in the economic stockade (student loans to mortgages) for the rest of our lives.
So, what could ‘pink robots’ do but strive to break the life’s shackles and get brained-out; ‘Now And Them’ gives them a great excuse. (Have to admit that I can’t stop moving, it’d be too pretentious to call it ‘dancing’, while reviewing this goodie!) ‘Burn The Clock’ will help you burn the hole in the floor while ‘Big Wednesday’ afford more pensive, but not too ‘reclined’ in its posture. ‘Heel‘N’Toe’ surges on with some of the finest Brit-rapping one’s heard since long before Dizzee hit the Mercury’s circuit of ‘kiss of death’.
The great thing about this album is that functionality of these cuts doesn’t avoid tackling the problems thus allowing those of us to exercise their brains regardless of bodies being busy and happy to be swaying. ‘Physical World’ is not more than a spoken-word mini-cut but what kinda, baby! ‘Supernatural Thing’ gets so soul-ized by the delivery of Alison David, while the final, tenth, track is ‘Nowism’ that keeps it inside the ‘Reality’, much more than Mr Bowie whose album of that title has come out this week as well.
“I love DJing but it’s very niche, it’s hard to actually say anything and we’ve got a lot to say. A band is personal. The message gets through,” Adam Freeland said last May. The denizen of the dance Capital of Britain, i.e. Brighton, knows what he is talking about and how to serve beats as fulfilling as cocoa is to a chocoholic.
8/10
SashaS
18-9-2003
Free*Land album ‘Now And Them’ is released 15 September 2003 on MarineParade
(Free*Land’s single ‘We Want Your Soul’ has been out since 01 Sept. 2003)
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