TAL M. KLEIN
Peace.Love.Beats (Aniligital)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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There are plenty of beats on Tal M. Klein's latest CD, Trancenden: Peace.Love.Beats, and sometimes I find myself wishing Tal would just leave the damned computer alone and let the loop do its thing. We know how it's done. They loop a sample of an acoustic drum set with a nasty beat and for whatever reason, which I've never been able to understand, they either cut little slivers out of the loop or mix it while going crazy with the faders. Results? Little hiccups of silence that throw the beat out of joint and prevent the listener from getting into a real groove. Apparently that's "tight." To me it's just aggravating because my first reaction is to take the fucking disc out and clean it. When Tal's not going mouse happy, though, he does manage to find some interesting sounds and put them together in a fairly funky fashion. The Israeli-born artist keeps things minimalistic much of the time while still firing the imagination, and moving my feet here and there, unt il tha t da mn cho p ch op c hopi ng starts again and I lose the beat and, eventually, interest.

© 2002 - DJ Johnson