A Guy Called Gerald - Essence

Yahoo! Launch - 12th July 2000

(Original article taken from http://launch.yahoo.com/read/content.asp?contentID=174633)  

ALBUM REVIEW - Essence
12/07/2000



By Ken Micallef

Seminal jungle player Gerald Simpson released his heavyweight treatise on the genre, Black Secret Technology, back in 1995, when drum 'n' bass was in its prime. Five years on, and Gerald (and his music) have mellowed. While many claim drum 'n' bass is dead, Essence transforms the largely adolescent and aggressive music into song 'n' bass arrangements that are soulful and sensuous. With guest vocals by Lamb's Louise Rhodes, Deelite's Lady Miss Kier, and Welsh singer-songwriter Wendy Page, Essence is the album Roni Size's Breakbeat Era hoped to be, a song-based, drum 'n' bass epic that works on many levels.

Sure, Essence is rife with ricocheting rhythms and interstellar synth sounds, but on "Fever (Or A Flame)," "Humanity," "Final Call," "Glow," and "Universal Spirit," Gerald upends cliche and confounds those who say drum 'n' bass is only mad dance music. Soul 'n' bass is Simpson's new style, and it wouldn't sound out of place on Soul Train, circa 2005.

Elsewhere, the songs--or, rather, the mood-tracks--growl, glow, and expand like some Venusian fog. They're all enigmatic tones and mysterious auras, as if Gerald was inspired by some occult teaching, or perhaps an underground comic book series.

Unfortunately, with drum 'n' bass's current lack of cache, Essence may not get the hearing it deserves. In another five years, the talented Mr. Simpson will have moved on, and possibly, beyond. Time, is of the Essence