Dishes Disease / Rancid

Artist: Breakbeat Era
Album: Our Disease / Rancid [Single]
Released in: 1999

So, yes, Breakbeat Era only have one full album, but they also have a small cluster of singles. Apparently, I own this one. I only have two comments on it.

• Listening to Rancid again made me realize I should have included in the list of good songs below. It's quite enjoyable, from the Portishead-like guitar in the beginning to the searing vocals. And maybe I should have been less harsh on Breakbeat Era since three good songs is not an inconsiderable achievement.
• The rest of the EP is a couple of remixes and one B-side. The remixes are not credited to anyone so they're presumably by Breakbeat Era itself and they're kind of .... boring. My harshness in re: Breakbeat Era's boring beats remains in place.
  

Dishes-Obscene

Artist: Breakbeat Era
Album: Ultra-Obscene
Released in: 1999

Breakbeat Era are DJ Die, Roni Size and vocalist Leonie Laws. They only ever released this one album -- my (completely unfounded) guess is that DJ Die and Leonie were a couple and then they split up. The one time I saw DJ Die spin in person (in 2002?), there was no Leonie Laws backing him up, but there was a similarly small, dark and attractive woman MC'ing.

Anyway, I had fond memories of this album, but listening to it now I find it rather disappointing. The basic sound is the darker, hard-thumping side of 90's d'n'b that's also found in Reprazent (no surprise there, given the personnel overlap). Laws is on vox, and man, is she angry. She snarls, threatens, tosses around insults (Here's to another / crap weekend / You lied to yourself / And you s*** on all your friends), and generally goes to town. This works on the songs Bullitproof and Time 4 Breaks where her voice and the beats really work together to create a powerfully emotional package (please ignore the anime montage behind the youtube video for Time 4 Breaks...). The rest of the time, Leonie's just going on up there and not only do her lyrics get more enigmatic/inane (Emma may look like a man / but she sucks spice[?] / she sucks my life), but I feel like the guys are letting her down in terms of the beats. It's the same boring breaks over and over. AMG doesn't seem to mind, but Pitchfork calls it a disposable album. I'm leaning more towards Pitchfork.

P.S. If you're reading this, comment. Please. Just 'hi' is fine.

Dishokha

Artist: Various Indian electronica musicians you've never heard of except Talvin Singh and State of Bengal
Title: Anokha: Soundz [sic] of the Asian Underground
Released in: 1997
Recommended by: denizens of the Underworld mailing list

Good dish-washing music: energetic, clearly audible above running water, dance-inducing. Will I listen to it again sometime in the next ten years? Unclear.

This album is a smooth and surprisingly cohesive compilation of Indian-influenced drum'n' bass and techno, but it's a little boring. Even though I used to listen to it while studying, I was only ever able to remember the first two tracks distinctly (1 - Amar Singh - Jaan : really lovely, 2 - State of Bengal - Flight IC408 : grating samples, too long). And that's still the case even though I just listened to it yesterday.