Tipper – Holding Pattern

I thought I would comment as my opinion of this album, and Tipper's previous, is an interesting counterpoint to behemoth's view. Where it matters, I agree with him entirely: both albums are brilliant, and Tipper is a genius for making either one of them, but especially for making both.

On the other hand, I slightly prefer this one. I heard it before I heard The Critical Path, hence with no expectations, and was simply blown away. My reaction was almost the opposite - this was much less dancefloor-orientated than I expected, as my previous exposure to Tipper was from his monstrous remixes, like "Dusted". Compared to that, this album greatly surprised me with its cheeky, playful attitude, experimental/idm influences and overall subtley. You aren't assaulted by hellish basslines - yes, it's bass heavy in true Fuel style, but these aren't overbearing howls, just solid funky subs... More like electro than nu breaks. It reminds me in production of teebee's "blacksciencelabs" - total precision, resulting in a very clean, very sparse record, yet still packing that vital bite and weight in the beats and basslines in bucketfuls.

On this record, Tipper's immense production skill merges completely with his songwriting. The tracks are minimal, setting up simple but devastatingly effective grooves, and that fat production ensures these would work on the floor. But subtle arrangement details, sleight-of-hand programming flourishes and idm-style edits keep things interesting when relaxing to this CD in the bedroom, and keep providing new surprises after many, many listens.

The impression that I get is one of a man sitting comfortably at the top of his form: confident, clever, witty, he can program anything he wants to, and he's having all sorts of fun doing so. This shines so clearly from the album that it's impossible to listen without grinning.

Get this.

This is quite a different sound to the first album, "The Critical Path". Holding Pattern has less of a glitchy, doom-laden and dark atmosphere, like it's predecessor, which at first dissappointed me. Tipper's first album blew me away with things that I didn't think were possible, but this seemed like a big departure into dancefloor-friendly land. But after a couple of listens, that's really not such a bad thing, as the real dancefloor-friendly ts, such as "Furlong", "Donut", "Oversteer" and "Tug Of War", really will tear up any dancefloor that likes it's breaks. Real monsterous tuneage. And then you've got some more chilled stuff like "Minimal Thoughts Of Reason" and "End Of Make Believe". And then you have incredible experimental hip hop like "Pins And Needles" and "Tip Hop". And wibbly electro stuff like "Subalicious". And the after-hours breaks of "Oblong" and "On A Limb". And funky salsa breakbeat mayhem in the shape of "Sable Taco". All the tracks are of the type that try something new, while still retaining the trademark Fuel ultra-low bass. This isn't really comparable to The Critical Path, as it is something entirely different, and thus I came to the conclusion that Tipper is even more of a genius than I first thought. Rinse-it-on-ya-stezza.