Send "Skream " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 While dubstep is now bigger than Pinch, Kode9, or any of the veteran artists likely ever thought it would be, 2006 represented a productive and well-lit time period for the scene. Like much of what is being done now, dubstep was fresh and diverse four years ago, with each production differing significantly from the next. Underground names and labels were making their way into bigger conversations by the minute. It was a milestone year, and the genre’s enthusiasts saw a wealth of prominent releases filter into their favorite online UK music retailers—Burial, the extensive Tectonic Plates set, Mary Anne Hobbs’ Warrior Dubz, and a backward-looking compilation from Tempa called The Roots of Dubstep. In a matter of years, Burial would be nominated for the Mercury Prize and a remix of La Roux’s “In for the Kill”, produced by 20-something South Londoner Ollie “Skream” Jones would go UK Gold. Since the 2006 release of Skream!, his mixed-bag debut long player, the pioneering producer has turned out devastatingly provocative dubs, mix sets, and remixes—the later Skreamizm entries, “Trapped in a Dark Bubble”, “Hedd Banger”, “Swarm”, a stinging remix of Zomby’s “Float”, the 2007 BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, to name a few, as well as the lot that Skream has kept to himself. But the artist’s Outside the Box is only peppered with moments as captivating as what he’s previously produced. In that respect, Skream’s second album has more in common than expected with his first, an outing fit with highs and damning lows, where primal, creative dubstep bumps up against stuff that’s doomed to wallow in lukewarm first gear. Outside ranges from thrilling, grandiose scattershot garage to electronic pop so unremarkable you’ll need a reminder that Skream had anything to do with putting it together. In its swirling tones and cinema-sized build, warm, techno opener “Perforated” will register with more of Skream’s frequent advocates than the pair-up with West Coast MC Murs will. Usually at the top of his game, Murs laces dull plodder “8-Bit Baby” with run-of-the-mill boasts and a few obvious allusions to Brit slang to liven the material. Outside‘s guest spots are plentiful, and like “8-Bit Baby”, they’re generally disappointments. La Roux returns for “Finally”, which launches amid tribal percussion and rumbling atmospherics, but cools from there. Soon enough, “Finally” is Skream’s admirable but off-putting attempt to access her biggest fans, with inoffensive synth strings and an overcooked operatic rock chorus sturdily intact. “How Real” features vocals from Freckles that are indulgently Auto-Tuned past any tolerable point. The result is mere club pop, with stuttering and randomly pitched-up choruses dangling atop Skream’s hard and once potent breakbeats. After numerous experiences with this track, I’m shocked at how entirely devoid it is of the appeal I regularly associate with Skream. It might even be unrewarding enough for American radio or some Internet-hyped DJ team who’ve taken to stringing together a nonsensical group of consonants in lieu of formulating an actual stage name. “Where You Should Be”, on the other hand, is beautiful. It’s soulful and busy, strewn with lush organ grooves and a tastefully coded robo-vocal from singer Sam Frank. In line with recent efforts put forth in Darkstar’s studio, you could say it’s like “hearing circuitry cry.”...full text |
| Bbc |
| In 2005, when Skream first rode to wider public notice on the frosty arpeggios of Midnight Request Line, interviews told of Aphex-like tales of hard drives stuffed with 7,000-plus tracks. Given that, and despite a steady stream of 12-inch releases in the interim, it’s surprising that Outside the Box is only Croydon-born Oliver Jones’s second full-length since he started releasing music in 2003. His 2006 debut album, Skream!, was patchy in comparison with the superb Skreamizm EPs that preceded it. But it nevertheless formed part of a wave of artist albums, including Burial’s eponymous debut, which accelerated dubstep’s transformation from hyped underground scene to the sort of influential position it’s trying to enjoy being in today. Another big part of that process was Skream’s 2009 remix of La Roux’s In for the Kill, and it’s that same fusion of dubstep and pop that informs much of Outside the Box. It’s an often uneasy mix, with several tracks here taking their cues more from commercial trance than the rave culture Jones says he wants to resurrect. The delay on the percolating mid-range wail of Listenin’ to the Records on My Wall carries a faint echo of Midnight Request Line, and the Amen break rhythm is kosher drum’n’bass, but the melody and mechanics of the breakdown is pure Paul Van Dyk. Similarly, How Real, like the recent I Need Air single by Magnetic Man (Skream’s collaboration with Benga and Artwork), is sharing water and hugs with the day-glo deely-bopper end of old-school rave. No law against that, but these are some of the most formulaic dance music styles around. Where’s the creative reward in rehashing such old tricks?...full text |
| Guardian |
| For all the critical plaudits and acres of blog coverage, dubstep has thus far proved the kind of genre that defies the mainstream: its bass-heavy sound is too strange and experimental to be co-opted into the world of the top 40 rundown and the Chris Moyles show. Which is perhaps where Oliver Jones, who records and DJs under the name Skream, comes in. His underground credentials are beyond reproach. He worked at Croydon's Big Apple Records, dubstep's glamour-packed equivalent of having hung out at Sun Studios in 1957. His 2005 single, Midnight Request Line, was one of the tracks that defined the genre. But he's also the man behind the closest thing to an actual hit the dubstep scene has produced: a sinister, flatly brilliant remix of La Roux's In for the Kill that left the 80s retro original seeming undernourished and underwhelming by comparison. Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Skream Outside the Box Tempa 2010 On the one hand, Jones's second album follows the standard template of dance albums since time immemorial: track featuring obscure or once-famous rapper (8 Bit Baby, featuring MURS); ambient interludes (Perferated, A Song for Lenny); track featuring either an 80s pop or indie/rock vocalist (La Roux, repaying Jones's remix favours on Finally); instrumental suggesting that there's some corner of even the most streetwise electronic producer that is forever Vangelis, largely because it's called something deeply portentous like Fields of Emotion (Fields of Emotion). On the other hand, you're continually struck by a sense of an artist trying to do something different, to push at the boundaries of his chosen genre, to see how the apparently uncommercial sound of dubstep might be adapted to achieve some kind of crossover success. Jones would doubtless deny that's what he's doing – for one thing, underground artists who make a bid for the mainstream tend to keep their intentions quiet, and for another, Leeds-based producer Rusko tried something similar earlier this year on an album called OMG, to which the general reaction seemed to be FFS. It's an argument that you suspect would meet with stony, mortified silence back in Big Apple Records, but you could suggest that a lot of Outside the Box has less in common with Midnight Request Line than it does with Britney Spears's Freakshow, the 2007 album track on which producers Bloodshy and Avant relocated a wobbling dubstep bassline to the middle of a pop song....full text |
| Bbc |
| A complaint-cum-observation surrounding the ascendance of certain musicians is that it’s not what you know but who you do that counts. This is, mostly, nonsense: few artists attain wide exposure without some ability, be it innate or imposed upon them through conditioning. So one can sympathise with fashion model Karen Elson for having reservations about recording songs she’s written since 2005, following relocation from New York to Nashville with her husband. That husband: a certain Jack White. Those shrill sounds: cynics sharpening their blades before giving The Ghost Who Walks a chance. White’s presence cannot be ignored – he might be behind the kit, but the bluesy guitar tones and rootsy ambience of some of these arrangements bear his influence. He also acts as producer, so has had a substantial amount of input in shaping the end result. But this should not detract from the talents of our headliner, as Elson clearly has an astute ear for lilting melodies and a clever lyric. She sings with a comfortable confidence, an attractive Cat Power-like huskiness pervading pieces like Pretty Babies and The Birds They Circle; but never does she steal the limelight wholly. In this respect, The Ghost Who Walks sounds more like a full-band record than a solo affair – perhaps a result of the stellar cast assembled. Among the performers are The Dead Weather’s Jack Lawrence and My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel, and also present is Meg White’s husband Jackson Smith, son of Patti. At its best, The Ghost Who Walks effectively distils the key sonic characteristics of its various contributors. A Thief at My Door is a country-tinged tale of love deliberately ducked out of; The Truth Is in the Dirt features some splendid organ work, colouring the gaps left between six-string shrieks; and Stolen Roses brings an accordion to the fore, lending a traditional folk air to lyrical explorations of relationship misadventures. Even during its less-memorable moments, this is an album that maintains its atmosphere, and Elson is an engaging narrator (although there’s no trace of her Oldham roots to be heard). But one question looms large: would this record have been made – or, more pertinently, would it be such a high-profile release – without the association with Elson’s husband?...full text |
| Antiquiet |
| It’s hard not to be skeptical when a well-renowned musician gets married and starts making music with his wife – especially when said wife hasn’t exactly had much of a musical career previous to the marriage. Whatever the case, it would be unfair to judge Karen Elsons’s first album, The Ghost Who Walks, based on her husband’s (Jack White) career. Sure, Mr. White produced and played drums on the album, but, according to Karen, “never changed anything or said ‘you need to do this.’” We recall Courtney Love saying something like that about Kurt Cobain during Hole’s very short glory days (AKA before Kurt died), but let’s leave the husband factor outside of the equation for now. The factor that cannot be left out of the equation is that there currently exists an abundance of female singers in the pop-rock-country-infused-blues-folk-whatever genre. Not to sound misogynistic, but you can go from Jenny Lewis to Cat Power, to Zooey Deschanel, to Alison Krauss, to KT Tunstall, all the way down to Taylor Swift, and you have a bit of a crowded market here. Yes, all those singers have their singularities that make them stand out from each other in special ways (except for Swift), but it’s still hard to see what room there would be for Karen Elson to stand out. This is the same gut-reaction anyone in their right mind would have to a new trip-hop act these days – we already have Portishead and Massive Attack, and those are as good as it gets, so why more? ...full text |
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