Send "Magnetic Man " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Dubstep in 2010 is in a similar position to drum and bass a decade ago: stylistically full-grown and perhaps exhausted, its experimental wing drifting into other niches while the remaining core wonders whether the music has already peaked. It's the perfect moment in which to launch an assault on the charts: liberated from any drive for formal innovation, and whittled down to a simple and recognizable repetitive groove formula, dubstep can now inhabit a variety of pop guises while avoiding the identity crisis such moves would have provoked five years ago.Enter Magnetic Man, which appropriately enough is something of a dubstep supergroup comprising Benga and Skream (perhaps the scene's two most broadly popular producers), together with Artwork, who've been largely silent since their trend-setting 2002 EP Red. Notwithstanding the aggregated pedigree, Magnetic Man feels like a Benga-helmed affair, and most of the group's eponymous album comes on like a fleshed-out, glossy take on Benga's 2008 album, Diary of an Afro Warrior. The good news for dubstep fans is that this self-consciously sleek and glossy makeover doesn't really depart from the template that album established. The bad news is, well, that is the bad news: Benga's honed brand of lurching, constipated grooves represents dubstep at its most enervated and unappealing; the widely held conviction that this template represents dubstep at its most crossover-friendly is simply further evidence that audiences are unhealthily enamored with buzzing ugliness right now (file it all next to David Guetta-produced R&B). If Magnetic Man remains a substantially better album than Diary of Afro Warrior, it's because there's more going on than just Benga's boring beatwork. Having abandoned any pretense at rhythmic tension or novelty, the group instead focuses on constructing trebly, fleshy synthesizer melodies cribbed from mid-00s electro-house (and, by extension, trance). The results vaguely recall the lush but metallic pop-techno of Ellen Allien & Apparat's Orchestra of Bubbles. This is a sensible direction for populist dubstep, and Magnetic Man concoct appropriately weedy synth arpeggios and moody atmospherics, though the psuedo-classical motifs on "Flying Into Tokyo" and "Karma Crazy" trip into hamfisted territory. Ultimately, though, these attempts at melodic levity remain constrained by leaden beats and the boom/bust dynamics of the arrangements, whose cyclical predictability results in most of the tunes' exhausting their welcome within minutes....full text |
| Contactmusic |
| As dance music enjoys something of a rejuvenation, its heartwarming to see such an upsurge of creativity taking place on these very shores. While previous revolutions in beat culture have traditionally occurred in the likes of Chicago and San Antonio, this year's refreshing dubstep phenomenon has seen London emerge at the forefront of a scene resigned to having disappeared up its own self-important backside many moons ago. Although in many ways still the residual point for faceless entities more at home behind a mixing desk of one form or another, the sheen enamoured by the genre's big three - namely DJs Skream, Benga and Artwork has created its own little stir to the point where even the big guns Stateside such as Timbaland and Pharrell Williams are gazing over the pond nervously, guarding their thunder before the inevitable steal becomes apparent. That the trio have joined forces as Magnetic Man seems to have engineered something of an invincible force, far outweighing the initial flurry of excitement surrounding both their individual identities and the scene that spawned them. Certainly the fourteen pieces of music spread across this self-titled debut suggest a diversity and range not normally associated with such a niche-orientated genre, yet despite such a finely crafted body of work there's an insatiable feeling that the best is still to come. 'Magnetic Man' is largely constructed of instrumental compositions, many of which are centred around furious breakbeats and convoluted bass rhythms. What sets this apart from the rest of the competition however is the audacious delving into unknown territories, such as on the oriental tinged, string heavy opener 'Flying Into Tokyo'. 'Ping Pong' meanwhile uses Atari console style beats over a deftly orchestrated arrangement that harks back to the days of Roni Size et al, except without the monotonous jazz noodling that undoubtedly curtailed his career. The electro mash up of 'Mad' coupled with the cinematic 'Karma Crazy' also hint at more ambitious excursions in the future than most of their dubstep contemporaries could ever dare to muster. Vocal collaborations are sparse, but when called upon Magnetic Man go for the jugular. Ms Dynamite adds a ragga style accompaniment to 'Fire' that far outweighs anything she's put her name to since 2002, while John Legend's gently whispered croon fits perfectly with the laidback dub of album closer 'Getting Nowhere'. It's the two numbers featuring Katy B - herself one of this year's great finds courtesy of regular studio accomplice (and one third of Magnetic Man) Benga - that really accentuate what a delightful record 'Magnetic Man' serves to be. Recent single 'Perfect Stranger' floats and bends like New Order on a cold day, Miss Brien's lilting voice almost sounding like it was designed to match whatever melody was put in front of it. Better still is 'Crossover', possibly the standout moment here whose reverberating bassline and delicate tread has a distinct after hours feel about it reminiscent of Massive Attack in their heyday....full text |
| Notmanyexperts |
| Magnetic Man’s debut came out on Monday, an event of course overshadowed by my review of it being unveiled on the same day on The Line Of Best Fit. To be concise, it’s conclusion was lukewarm to the point where I can’t see it troubling the upper echelons of mine, or indeed anybody else’s, end of year album lists. Nevertheless, it’s worth a look if you’re seriously into the overblown wobble sound (I am not), but Skream’s “Outside The Box” (released earlier this year) is a much better example of major label “dubstep”. Better still, be controversially two-years-behind and download Benga’s “Diaries of an Afro Warrior” or Burial’s “Untrue”. If I haven’t put you off enough, you can read the original here or peruse it below. “Despite there being nothing more annoying than a trust-funded, Topman covered, squat-posing hipster babbling that “dubstep is the future” based on the evidence of Katy B’s new single, these particular brainless bandwagon humpers are probably right. A whole generation of youth are eschewing guitar lessons to familiarise themselves with Ableton or Logic, and given the increasingly technological-centric nature of society within the past decade or so, this trend is fairly inevitable. Yet this alone cannot be counted as an argument in favour of Magnetic Man’s debut album; unfortunately for them, their pasts as Skream, Benga and Artwork bring enormous expectations and the question to be asked is whether they’ve done themselves justice, or whether they’ve thrown together generic radio fodder and laughed all the way to their next Radio 1 session. Well… the answer isn’t quite as straightforward as the question. Without a doubt, the trio have nothing to be embarrassed about; next single ‘Perfect Stranger’ is going to propel them once more chartwards via its scattering beats and a vocal from woman of the minute (hopefully literally) Katy B, whilst ‘The Bug’ brings a darker and more refined sound to proceedings that will satisfy cynical dubstep connoisseurs. Admittedly, there are isolated mistakes.’Box Of Ghosts’ fails to go anywhere remotely interesting, but it’s ‘Fire’ that is particularly disastrous, though this is undoubtedly down to Ms Dynamite’s laptop-smashingly irritating nasal vocal delivery. It sounds particularly weak following the unexpected wrong-footing of album opener ‘Flying Into Tokyo’ on which they resist the urge to drop straight into towering beats, and instead carefully conduct violins and glockenspiels, creating a beautifully unconventional opening track....full text |
Magnetic Man lyrics
|
| |||||||
