1995 CD ffrr 124073
1995 CS ffrr 124073
1995 CD Sire 35029
1999 CD Sony Classical 8286462
2000 CD Rhino 28614
2000 CS Rhino 24073
Respected by the underground for his production skills and lauded by
the press for his star potential, Goldie's album debut proved he was no
fluke on either count. But from the first few minutes of Timeless, new
listeners might wonder what's so different about jungle and its first
superstar. The sweeping synths and lilting female vocals that form the
intro to the title-track opener could be taken from any above-average
house anthem. All questions are answered, however, once the beat kicks
in. Manic, echoey percussion rolls around and through the song while a
muscular dub bassline pounds additional sonic territory. The beat fades
in and out, appearing and re-appearing with all the stealth of a
charging rhino. The seven other tracks are just as uncompromising, even
adopting a hip-hop beat for the R&B flavor of "State of Mind."
Though jungle might be jarring for first-time listeners unused to
mid-tempo melodies functioning as a bed for hyperspeed beats, Timeless
makes it a much smoother ride.
John Bush - All Music Guide
Goldie is jungle's most recognizable face. More than any other artist
he is synonymous with drum 'n' bass. Aside from owning Metalheadz, a
label at the forefront of the genre's development, he has attained
public notoriety by producing Timeless, one of the most important LPs
of jungle's first five years. Tracks like the moving, urban, epic tale
of "Inner City Life"--a tale told in three movements--are among the
tunes that define what jungle is. Others, like "Saint Angel," in which
Goldie collaborates with fellow production wizards 4 hero, throb with
virtually subliminal bass and electronic snarls. Other subdued and
equally inspired items, including "State of Mind," combine live upright
bass and drum instrumentation with the soulful wails of guest vocalist
Lorna Harris. Timeless is exactly as the title implies--a classic.
Daniel Shumate - Amazon.com
In der Tat zeitlos, aber auch exakt der heutigen Zeit entsprechend. Dem
30jährigen Londoner DJ und Graffitikünstler Goldie ist mit
seinem Debütalbum etwas überaus Seltenes gelungen: Wie Dylans
Highway 61 Revisited, Coltranes A Love Supreme und einer Handvoll
anderer Platten gebührt Timeless ein besonderer Platz in der
Musikgeschichte. Goldie gelang das Kunststück, musikalisch und
darüber hinaus auch gesellschaftlich den Nerv voll getroffen zu
haben. Timeless vermittelt durch die Lyrics und noch mehr durch seine
bilderreiche Musik eine bestimmte emotionale und klangliche Botschaft:
Man ist mit der Vergangenheit im reinen und mit der Zukunft in vollem
Einklang. Hard Bop, Soul, Hip-Hop, Techno, House, Acid Jazz, Trip-Hop
-- und jetzt, dank Goldie -- Jungle.
Eine Art Großstadt-Techno, der sich aus atemberaubenden
Breakbeats und Dub-Bass-Figuren zusammensetzt. Jungle vereinigt
schwarze und weiße, amerikanische und britische Dance-Clubs und
ist wie eine einzige große Rave-Party in einem heruntergekommenen
Tanzsaal. Doch Goldie erreicht mit Timeless noch viel mehr als das: Er
bringt die Musik heraus aus den Clubs ins Bewußtsein der
Öffentlichkeit, indem er den hypnotischen Jungle-Beat mit einer
Jazzinstrumentierung, Ambientklängen und Hip-Hop-Samples versieht.
Die souligen Stimmen von Diane Charlemagne und Lorna Harris tun ihr
übriges und klingen wie bei Marvin Gaye zu seiner besten Zeit.
Eingerahmt wird die ganze CD von zwei riesigen episch-melancholischen
Stücken, der 21-minütigen Titel-Suite, (mit Goldies Hit
"Inner City Life") und dem 12-minütigen "Sea Of Tears", auf dem
Live-Jazzer mitwirkten. Das Ganze wird noch gewürzt mit schaurigen
Industrie-Sounds ("Saint Angel") und Ausflügen in den Jazz-Soul
("State Of Mind"). Timeless vereinnahmt auf eine subtile Weise, und
scheint uns unwiderstehlich zuzuflüstern, im Hier und Jetzt wieder
aufzuwachen.
Roni Sarig - Amazon.de
'Don't go near 'Timeless' ... it will take your soul out, take it on a
fucking journey, and hand it back to you' (GOLDIE)'Timeless', das
Titelstück und der Kern des Doppelalbums, ist im Prinzip eine 21
Minuten-Version von 'Inner City Life', unterteilt in die Parts
'Innercity Life', 'Jah' und 'Pressure' und geht in dieser dreigeteilten
Form weit über alles hinaus, was 'Innercity Life' und damit das
authentischste Stück moderner Großstadtmusik jemals war.
'Timeless' schraubt den UK-Breakbeat in eine nie dagewesene Dimension,
sprengt alle mittlerweile vorgegebenen Rahmen, überspringt die
Grenzen des Genres, ohne auch nur ein anderes wirklich zu
berühren. GOLDIE spielt mit Sounds wie ein Kind mit dem Feuer, und
er läuft verdammt noch mal Gefahr, den ganzen Laden
anzuzünden. Er schöpft die Möglichkeiten moderner
Technologie bis zum Letzten aus und hat doch keine Hemmungen ob seiner
Zielsetzung, die bis dato definitivste aller urbanen kontemporären
Formen des musikalischen Ausdrucks zu finden, auf manuell erstellte
Sounds zurückzugreifen. Der größte Teil der auf
'Timeless' verwendeten Cubase-gesteuerten Rhythmen z. B. basiert auf im
Studio live eingespielten Drumpattern. Überhaupt wurde, wann immer
möglich, versucht, nur eigene Sounds zu samplen, um am Ende ein
möglichst originäres Ergebnis zu bekommen. Das Ergebnis ist
eine Platte, wie sie - auch dank Diane Charlemagnes essentiellem Gesang
- soulfuller nicht sein könnte. GOLDIE nennt seine Musik
'Inner-City Ghetto Music', und soulful meint hier nicht nur
kräftig, stark, sondern brutal, denn die Seele der Großstadt
ist der Kampf. In ihm zu überleben, ist das zentrale Thema des
Albums. Auch ein Track, der diesen Kampf überleben will, muß
hart sein. Die Tracks auf 'Timeless' sind so hart, daß sie einen
Club auch um 6 Uhr morgens noch zum Kochen bringen. Das ist die einzige
Härte, die zählt, und die hat nichts mit harten Sounds,
sondern einzig und allein mit Integrität zu tun.
Stephan Glietsch / Intro - Musik & so www.intro.de
Goldie was deservedly the first crossover star to emerge from the
jungle/drum & bass underground scene, although credit for this
astonishing debut album must also go to his collaborator and engineer,
Rob Playford. This music is almost three-dimensional--the soundtrack to
some undreamt of, heavenly computer game--and the cavernous dub breaks,
rapid-fire rhythms and morphing twists and turns of "Jah The Seventh
Seal" and "This Is A Bad" is intoxicating. Its centrepiece, however, is
the epic, three-part title track featuring Diane Charlemagne's vocals;
its all-enveloping rhythms and shadowy synths take the listener on a
palpable musical descent into the darkest horrors of inner city life.
Drum & bass was quickly subsumed to become the lingua franca of TV
adverts before dropping from fashion, yet Timeless stands the test,
genuinely living up to its name.
David Stubb - Amazon.co.uk
Spin (12/95, p.63) - Ranked #17 on Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums Of '95.' Spin (12/95, p.81) - 9
Near Perfect - "...a fall of light into the urban endzone....Goldie has
taken jungle to a more expansive level here, fusing its ominous bad-boy
polyrhythms with gorgeous diva vocals, rich piano playing, and upbeat
jazzy chords that dissolve into ambient clouds....brings jungle to a
new level of cross-fertilization..."
Alternative Press (1/96, p.80) - "...Starting with the increasingly
familiar....palette of jungle/drum and bass music, Goldie and his
Metalheadz sculpt expansive sonic constructions that elude the linear
confines of descriptive language..."
NME (12/23-30/95, pp.22-23) - Ranked #10 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The
Year' for 1995 - "...an astonishing...symphony of whizzing breakbeats,
fluid soundscapes and mind-warping moodswings..."
Melody Maker (12/23-30/95, pp.66-67) - Ranked #8 on Melody Maker's list
of 1995's `Albums Of The Year' - "The jungle underground's
figurehead....Massive and jaw-droppingly ambitious..."
Village Voice (2/20/96) - Ranked #23 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
New York Times (1/6/96, p.C16) - Included in Neil Strauss' list of the
Top 10 Albums of `95 - "...the frenetic break beats of England's jungle
dance-music rub against lush ambient music, live instruments and a
technology-addled sense of soul..."
To appreciate TIMELESS, one must imagine a time when the renegade
snares of drum n' bass were alien to Madison Avenue. Hard as it might
be to believe now, with the breakbeat science put to the service of
peddling anything from automobiles to undergarments, Goldie and his
Metalheadz posse blew minds with their 21-minute "Timeless." Diane
Charlemagne's voice swoops through a world of synth sirens, bass
girders, and riveting breakbeats. Other TIMELESS standouts, including
the crushing "Saint Angel" and "Jah The Seventh Seal," are seemingly
extracted and distilled from "Timeless." Even now, it's an impressive
slab of future-pop. In 1994, Goldie's was the implacable voice of
ragga-punk alienation--and it was the most exciting noise heard from
the underground in a long while. In his wake DJs young and old
initiated a game of rhythmic/psychedelic one-upmanship and
time-stretching insouciance that turned music on its ear. Pirate radio
thrived in the early days of jungle. With his sparkling pop
sensibilities, Goldie quickly ascended to drum n' bass super-stardom.
Tracks such as "This Is A Bad," "Kemistry," and "You & Me" harness
jungle's technological flash to R&B's soul. TIMELESS is, at heart,
a pop album. As such, it holds up exceptionally well.
CD Universe
Twenty-nine year-old Goldie, the mastermind behind London's jungle
label Metalheadz, has made the first great jungle album - which is also
the first jungle-soul hybrid. His approach really does come from
timelessness, in the sense of losing time. Only two of these eight
pieces dip below the seven-minute mark, and though the title track goes
on for 21 minutes, it seems like it's barely a quarter that long. That
idea also ties into jungle's main rhythmic trick, which is tempo
sleight-of-hand: throwing a billion clicking beats into a slow
ragga-dub sway, or (Goldie's favorite trick) taking lightning-fast,
stuttering nailgun drum lines and making everything around them sweet
and pillowy. The beats of Timeless are irreproachably hard (when
they're present: they often take their sweet time showing up), but
everything else is soft and intoxicating - it's easy to lose track of
just how fast you're dancing. The album's high point, surprisingly, is
"State Of Mind," a passionate, Soul II Soul-ish groove with a lovely
vocal by Lorna Harris, a song whose only links to jungle are its trebly
percussion (from real drums!) and the standup bass loop that roots all
its stately, swinging chord changes. Also try "Kemistry" (a four-chord
keyboard riff with an extended on/off drum flip-out), the jittery
"Saint Angel" and the 12-minute, half-ambient "Sea Of Tears," which
appears to be played by a full live band, though drummer Mel Gaynor
quotes the Commodores' "Assembly Line" break.
