Handle with Care

No intro for this first album, straight to the heart of the matter with Burnin' Dub. Breakbeats, jazzy sounds and electric guitar screams. You can already feel the band has done a huge amount of work. It is confirmed with How Do You Sleep?. Alarmist ambiance, engaged lyrics, solid groove between hip-hop et rock, and huge semi-digital bass. Explosive final very neo-metal, reminding us that rock electro still exists. Then comes one of the jewels on this opus: Handle With Care, the eponym track, funnily, is not a dub one. It makes love to dub. Everything's in there : delay filters, deep and round bass, purely dub, clear and precise riddim, and reggae guitar. But the bonus comes from the sad and melodious violins by Yann Tiersen. If all the dub bands were as tight and anti-conformist, the genre could maybe renew itself. Preface, shorter, changes landscapes. Down tempo and melodic, an ethereal feminine voice gives it a trip-hop colour. Jah's Hardcore on the other hand totally ignores softness and imaginary. The ambiance is cold and sharp like a razor blade. The tension reigns but you cannot foresee the imminent explosion. Which comes at some point and sets the track on fire, turning into a virtual roadroller. Big ultra-saturated riff, hardtech beat and frenetic jungle. Back to dub with Afgan Evasion. Jazzy samples again, great bass. Cut Fiction sounds funky and trip-hop. Sustained groove and violins. Movie soundtrack. Sur le fil goes back to the ethnic influences with its Tibetan traditional vocals. Excellent Dub/reggae mixture on 1 hausse d'intensité. A rougher approach, stratospheric effects and unexpected ragga/drum'n'bass ending. More and more electro-dub with D*bm*th*rf*ck*r. more classical but really tripping. Via Continum brings back some saturated sounds for a grandiose and melancholic takeoff. Heavy and slow rhythm, cello, haunted male voice, despairing atmosphere becoming a renaissance, will power and abandon. Short but intense. Salystoar concludes the album on a rhythmical and evolved electro-dub piece. The traditional female singing perfectly fits with the modern and urban structures. Be cautious to handle it with care but feel free to listen to it with all your spirits. Attention talent. You are warned.

Reviewed by Yragael a long time ago... (http://www.dmute.net/chronique-album-362_-_Ez3kiel_-_Handle-With-Care.html )