admin
22 December 2023
If you only know Mix Master Mike from his work with the Beasties, there is a whole world of his music out there waiting to be discovered.
For those of you not in the know, Mike was a member of the Invisbl Skratch Piklz, and even though his B-Boys work is probably more familiar to the average ear, his solo work has always been more... hmmm... let\'s say, \"experimental\". And he proves it once again on his upcoming Immortal Records release, Bangzilla.
If you heard either 1999\'s Anti-Theft Device or 2000\'s Eye Of The Cyclops, you kind of know what to expect from Mike. But Bangzilla one-ups either of those two records, at least in my eyes. In a similar fashion, Bangzilla stills gives you a beautiful mishmash of sounds, whirling from unrecognizable blips and bleeps to more recognizable samples, like Ray Manzarek\'s organ work for The Doors.
But how Bangzilla differs from Mike\'s previous solo work is more important and more telling. It\'s a much more solid and smooth disc. Anti-Theft Device, although a good album, always seemed a bit too sporadic and scatterbrained to me. But Bangzilla sounds as if every boom, bap, and beep were choreographed and planned down to the finest detail.
\"Shamen\'s Lamp\" is thick and bass-driven, pounding a deep groove through your skin. \"Skanner 13\" lays down a funky and sometimes trippy beat, yet at the same time it\'s a bit dark and spooky. And \"MJ 12 Strike\" is a beautifully-orchestrated 808 masterpiece. And none of this even mentions the samples, which tackles everything from Jimi Hendrix to Star Wars.
So, Bangzilla is a step in the right direction for Mix Master Mike. He could very easily have churned out what he has done in the past, or a Beasties-esque album, sans Beasties. But instead he gave us a well thought out next step in the world of DJing.
For those of you not in the know, Mike was a member of the Invisbl Skratch Piklz, and even though his B-Boys work is probably more familiar to the average ear, his solo work has always been more... hmmm... let\'s say, \"experimental\". And he proves it once again on his upcoming Immortal Records release, Bangzilla.
If you heard either 1999\'s Anti-Theft Device or 2000\'s Eye Of The Cyclops, you kind of know what to expect from Mike. But Bangzilla one-ups either of those two records, at least in my eyes. In a similar fashion, Bangzilla stills gives you a beautiful mishmash of sounds, whirling from unrecognizable blips and bleeps to more recognizable samples, like Ray Manzarek\'s organ work for The Doors.
But how Bangzilla differs from Mike\'s previous solo work is more important and more telling. It\'s a much more solid and smooth disc. Anti-Theft Device, although a good album, always seemed a bit too sporadic and scatterbrained to me. But Bangzilla sounds as if every boom, bap, and beep were choreographed and planned down to the finest detail.
\"Shamen\'s Lamp\" is thick and bass-driven, pounding a deep groove through your skin. \"Skanner 13\" lays down a funky and sometimes trippy beat, yet at the same time it\'s a bit dark and spooky. And \"MJ 12 Strike\" is a beautifully-orchestrated 808 masterpiece. And none of this even mentions the samples, which tackles everything from Jimi Hendrix to Star Wars.
So, Bangzilla is a step in the right direction for Mix Master Mike. He could very easily have churned out what he has done in the past, or a Beasties-esque album, sans Beasties. But instead he gave us a well thought out next step in the world of DJing.
artid
2785
Old Image
7_3_mixmastermike.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 03 (nov 2004)
section
entertainmental