Articles
Caleb Burhans
Causa Sui's Euporie Tide
Mary Halvorson

Albums
14KT
34423
Atiq & EnK
Simon Bainton
Caleb Burhans
Aisha Burns
Causa Sui
Cristal
Current Value
Deepchord
Marcel Dettmann
Diamat
Federico Durand
Benjamin Finger
FiRES WERE SHOT
Free Babyronia
M. Geddes Gengras
Ghost Station
The Green Kingdom
The Green Man
Mary Halvorson Septet
Camilla Hannan
Marek Hemmann
K11
Lawrence
James McVinnie
Alexandre Navarro
Oh, Yoko
Sebastian Plano
Severence
Snow Ghosts
The Stargazer Lilies
Telonius
Tigerskin
Orla Wren
Zinovia

Compilations / Mixes
Air Texture III
Balance Presents Guy J
Cassy
Compost Black Label 5
Enter.Ibiza 2013
Isla Blanca 2013
Loco Dice
Ultrasoft! Anthems 33
Till Von Sein

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Campbell and Cutler
Coal
dBridge
Desert Heat
Fields
Floex
Jim Fox
High Aura'd / B. Bright Star
Simon Hinter
Moon Ate the Dark
Northern Lights EP
Terrence Parker
Seba
Stephen Whittington
Xtrah

The Green Man: Sound Power
Basswerk

Sound Power, Heiner Kruse's latest The Green Man collection (and issued on his own Germany-based Basswerk label), is an encompassing, thirty-track exploration of drum'n'bass's possibilities. With tracks pulling the genre into jazz, soul, dubstep, reggae, and trip-hop zones, the release earns its recommendation less for pushing the genre into uncharted experimental territory than for demonstrating how flexible the genre can be in the hands of a skilled producer. The release begins memorably with a catchy opener, “Word, Sound, Power (My Operator),” which receives a major boost from the involvement of vocalist Peter Bouncer and his soulful, rasta-flavoured delivery. Vocals aside, the track's a wonderful argument for The Green Man's music, too, with Kruse fashioning a slinky and seductive bass-powered groove that's pretty close to irresistible and in its drum patterning remarkably inventive, too.

That opener paves the way for a steady stream of wide-ranging cuts, most in the five-minute range and occupying different places along the emotional spectrum, with some laid-back and melancholy and others uptempo and euphoric. Many tracks are powered by the kind of muscular grooves that'll be familiar to genre devotees of long standing (e.g., “Somehow You Know When It's Right,” “Mindless”), but the enthusiasm with which Kruse delivers the material gives it punch no matter how much a given beat comes across as textbook drum'n'bass.

The soulful vibe is strongly in place for “Keep on Movin,” which powers a female vocalist's croon with a prototypically steamrolling drum'n'bass groove. It hardly surprises that “Reasonjazz” would be one of the album's most jazz-oriented tracks; what might surprise, however, is how well the jazz and drum'n'bass elements fuse together, with jazz-styled acoustic bass, keyboards, and drumming blending in easily. The Green Man's placid side comes out at the close of disc one in “A Song for Chloe,” a wistful instrumental featuring acoustic guitar strums and vintage synth whooshes, while the set's biggest left-turn must be the field recordings-meets-dub-techno excursion “Information” (issued under Kruse's real name).

A sociable chap, Kruse brings a generous number of vocalists along for the ride, among them Demolition Man (whose contributions to “Face the Father” bolster the tune's ragga style), MC Navigator (the anthemic high roller “Keep Trying”), Ras Abraham (the burning Jungle-reggae throwdown “Junglist Soldier”), and Mystic Dan (“Playing in the Dark,” wistful in tone despite its hefty groove). Fellow producers chip in, too, including DJ Freeze (“Junglist Soldier”) and Diz:play (an edited version of “Euphoria”). No slouch in the sound design and arranging departments either, Kruse individuates the tracks with inspired instrumental touches, like the vibes and muted horns that give “The Black & White Walkways” a cosmopolitan, European flavour and tablas that lend “Passage to India” and “Poona” exotic seasoning.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the thirty cuts could have been scaled down to form a stronger single disc release (or perhaps a double-disc set featuring twenty tracks total), even if the set as presented offers more than its share of satisfying moments. But some pieces are stronger than others (those of lesser note tend to be more atmospheric in design), and a tighter release would have seen only the former included on the release. On the plus side, there's no denying that Sound Power provides a thoroughly comprehensive portrait of The Green Man's music and a strong argument for the versatility of drum'n'bass as a genre.

October 2013