This review covers the liquid funk drum n bass track Goldie – Timeless: Inner City Life.
This track was released in 1995 on the album Timeless.
The track starts with some synth pads and string. From there, the vocals and parts of the drum kit come in. A bassline then comes in. The strings have an effect applied to them for a moment. The vocals have some reverberation applied to them. From there, the track then drops out for the most part, leaving only pads and a non-lyrical version of the vocals.
From there, a part of the drum kit comes in heavily filtered. The vocals return to their lyrical form as the drum kit makes a return. The rest of the drum kit comes in. Those synth string pads hit some higher notes. The vocals then drop out, leaving the drum kit, bassline, and synth strings as an instrumental section.
From there, the drum kit drops out from time to time before dropping out completely. The bassline drops with it. After that, the vocals come back. These vocals are backed by the synth pads. The vocals then drop out in a delay effect as the pads gradually fade out.
One thing I will say is that this track really nails the overall audio atmosphere. Just listening to the track, it is so easy to visualize the city at night. The neon signs, the lights, the traffic, the people walking down the sidewalk, all of that is so easy to visualize while listening to this track.
The vocals are very well done. It seems this track is going for a bit more of a laid back sound and the vocals really smooth things out nicely. They are very well done.
The drum kit and subtle bassline works quite well here. They give the track a certain energy, yet not excessively so. It’s enough to give the overall sound a nice texture.
Finally, the synth pads work well. They give the track that relaxed sound throughout. They round out the track quite nicely.
Overall, this is a very solid track. It has very good vocals, nice strings and pads, and a good drum kit and bassline. If you are looking for a nice chilled out track with the faster sounds of drum n bass, this track is a very good candidate. The atmosphere it presents overall is well done. So, an overall very good track.
Score
7.5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
