REVIEW - The Crystal Method's Vegas album

After coming into contact with a few tracks from The Crystal Method's album, Vegas (Keep Hope Alive, and Busy Child), I simply couldn't resist getting a hold of the actual album.

For those of you that don't know (all of you), I love Breakbeat. I practice the discipline of Parkour, and Breakbeat music fits magically well into the feeling and rhythm of fast, hard movement.

By no stretch of the imagination is this an album for the masses. In Vegas you will find no Trance. I can tell you for certain that you will not here anything from this album in a club. By releasing The Crystal Method have really shown their devotion to Breakbeat, and shown that they won't be bowing down to consumerism, and the status quo of dance-style music. Well, maybe that's over-analysing it a bit, but it's nice to think that there's that much thought put into it =D

The album starts off slow, with Trip Like I Do's slow, heavily-melodic, beats, which quickly morph into fast Breakbeats. The song ends as suddenly as it began, and suddenly you're launched into one of the best songs on the album, Busy Child. The only reason I haven't marked it as best, is because of another fantastic song. I'll get to that later.

Busy Child is just straight, in-line Breakbeat. Nothing experimental or alternative. It's exactly what you need to hear. From there, the album moves into softer territory, with Cherry Twist (a decent breakbeat number, but lacks the power to really give it some oomph), followed by High Roller (a mostly down-beat number, filled with samples from a space shuttle launch).

After these two relatively tame numbers, the aptly named Comin' Back, steers The Crystal Method back into more conventional Breakbeat. The most unique thing about this song, though, is the presence of a vocalist. The song is well-structured, musically and lyrically, and the female vocalist suits the music being played. My only gripe is that the voice's harshness can sometimes slightly grate on the ears.

Following this, is Keep Hope Alive, a song structured much like the earlier Busy Child. Again, nothing particularly special or revolutionary is done to the music, but it just sounds awesome. If you're going for a jog, this is the kind of song you want to be listening to.

Suddenly, Keep Hope Alive ends, and Vapour Trail begins. After a buildup lasting around 2 minutes, the song finds its pace, and bounces quite nicely. Unfortunately, its pace and bounce feels slightly inadequate until around the 3 minute mark. From there, the song is a nice fun excursion through various computer-generated sounds, and effects. However, it's the weak link in what is an otherwise good album.

From there, in comes She's My Pusher. Make sure you have some nice bass-y earphones or headphones (or surround sound system), because this song has some beautiful rumbles in it. It starts off slow, but quickly moves into fast breakbeat. Just audible in the background of the intense breakbeat is a soft, gliding track, which is definitely a nice addition. From there, we move into Jaded, a slow breakbeat, featuring the same vocalist as Comin' Back. She sings some passages, and groans orgasmically in others. The Crystal Method must've been trying to take this album somewhere shifty =P

Bad Stone ends the album in a nice flurry of low-tempo passages. I would dare say that this song is a great song to relax to. Featuring piano flourishes, peaceful and ethereal synthesised sounds, and a slow, pumping drum beat, it finds its rhythm easily, and is a fantastic way to end an album as energetic as it is creative and original.

My Score
8.5/10

Vegas, while it may not be The Crystal Method' best work (in my humble opinion), is a great foray into the world of breakbeat, and is a must-buy for breakbeat newbies and TCM fans. However, it may not be to every breakbeat lover's tastes. It does have some flaws at certain points, such as intrusive singing, weak beats, and un-interesting song structure, it is certainly worth of a listen.

If you like The Crystal Method, you probably already have this. If you're a newbie to breakbeat, get this. If you're a hardcore breakbeat fan, give a few tracks a listen, and see if you like them.

Some other stuff:
The Deluxe Edition of Vegas comes with an extra 10 tracks. 8 of these tracks are remixes, one of them is a 1993 demo version of Comin' Back, while the final track is a live performance of Vapour Trail.

-Kalem