A Guy Called Gerald - Essence

The Guardian - Friday 11th August 2000

(Original article taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,,352698,00.html) 

A Guy Called Gerald
Essence (Stud!o K7)
****
According to fickle pop culture, after 12 years' of service A Guy Called Gerald shouldn't be here at all. But then, Gerald Simpson has always been an unusual musical pioneer. Arguably the most important dance producer since the dawn of acid house, Mancunian-born Gerald has created a set of musical benchmarks in both house and drum'n'bass.

In 1988 he wrote the classic Voodoo Ray and 808 State's Pacific State, for which he was paid only £200 - at that time he was banging out tune after tune for lesser talents, only to be ripped off. After a disastrous spell at CBS (Sony), he announced that he would now use his sampler to program trance-like rhythms with breakbeats. The result was 28 Gun Bad Boy, a collision of gangster posturing, urban malevolence and a deadly cargo of breakbeat bombs that saw Gerald invent jungle.

Essence is a sophisticated album: the dominant mood is one of desolate beauty. It embraces gospel, blues, Detroit techno, dub and jazz, but the unconventional way Gerald plays them bends all the rules. At the same time, he breathes new life into vocal-led drum'n'bass, twisting the traditional song structure to suit his own purpose.

The vocalists' emotive performances are the album's crowing glory: recent single Humanity matches his hazy synths, slinky beats and melodic beauty with Lamb vocalist's Louise Rhodes's truly poignant singing. Refreshingly, Gerald eschews the MC for a classy male R&B singer, his elder brother David, who sings Could You Understand and the intense gospel groove of I Make It as if his life depended on it. Bolstered with slabs of funk, I Make It ranks among the most irresistible dance tracks of the past two years.

The strength of this project lies in the collective energy generated by all the participants. But the straight drum'n'bass tracks, The First Breath, Final Call and Scale Circle also reveal a great imagination at work, pinpointing Gerald's awesome programming skills and making it clear that this vision is entirely his own. A perfect synthesis of Gerald's rhythmic techniques and soulful drum'n'bass, Essence is a triumph. (MK)