Liquid’s new album will surprise and delight fans of the rave stalwart
‘Lethal’ is the name of Liquid’s 3rd album in recent years and all the hallmarks of his sound are present with a few delightful curveballs. ‘Wrong Sun’ is one of those tracks, a diversion from the Rave bangers into a vocal Dub Reggae tune and an ode to the rave/club/festival life reminiscent of Faithless, Dreadzone (perhaps not surprising when Earl 16 is on vocals!) and even UB40 with catchy lyrics that will stick firmly in your head.
‘Battle For The Minds’ starts stabby while introducing some familiar and very crisp breaks before a bit of scratching and Chuck D samples, a smatter of the good old 303s and bass that really does go ‘boom.’
‘Kill For You’ sounds like ‘Sweet Harmony’ Liquid with heartfelt, uplifting strings and arpeggios. Mr Downes always was the king of emotive rave and is yet to lose his crown!
‘Dread Inna Babylon’ is all the best parts of Jungle rolled into one with conscious ‘Chant of a poor man’ style lyrics from Echo Ranks. Expect to hear all the top Jungle DJs playing this one from Run Tings to Brian Brainstorm. This is Ragga Jungle without the excess and with all the good vibes.
‘Machine Repetition’ throws it back to 1991 with Bleeps, early Hardcore strings and breaks that sound amazing- heavy and programmed to perfection. Like the good old days but better!
‘Broken’ floored me, no joke. I instantly recognised the unmistakable voice of Rachel Wallace singing over a MASSIVE slice of modern day Dub. It’s as if it was meant to be- THAT voice with THAT musical production!
‘Morphine’ begins with the ‘Terminator’ version of the JB Funky Drummer followed by mighty wobs and 91′ dark hoovers making this the official banger of the album, only for the headstrong!
‘Lethal Beats’ is a subtly dark amen roller that moves seamlessly into each consecutive section with plenty of breath space from the the opening beats and drone bass into 4-Hero style stabs and the final section of eerie orchestral strings.
‘Blood Like Dope’ features the vocals of Niki Mak, the voice of 3 decades of Hard Dance in a poignant number that switches between the emotive strings/Niki’s vocals and a searing bassline. All of this makes me wish it was 1992 and this was in it’s rightful place dominating the UK charts.
‘Funk Removal’ fits nicely within Rave, Hardcore and modern Breakbeat sounding a little (or at least to me) like the Nuskool Breaks sound of the early to mid 00’s.
‘Plasticity’ kicks up the tempo for some D&B influenced action loaded with power chords, gnarly bass notes and movie esque drops. Yes, I could hear this playing to an action scene in a new Bond movie or one of the Fast & Furious films for sure!!!
‘Blackwave’ bookends this fantastic album with a final slice of Dub once again featuring the stunning voice of Earl 16. Both the music and the words are enigmatic and powerful and a thoughtful final cut on an album you need in your collection.
The album is available as a double 12″ Vinyl LP or a LTD edition bundle with additional 10″ Vinyl remix album (remixes from Ray Keith & Acen), a special 7″ Vinyl single and a USB with the entire ‘Lethal’ album plus remixes and ‘Spacemonkey’ & ‘Energy Flows’ albums and extras. The first 50 buyers will also get a Kniteforce frisbee! Full release will be 26/11/21.
Get the bundle on Pre-Sale Here
