Album Review: Calyx & TeeBee - All Or Nothing

The second collaborative effort from European drum 'n' bass artists Calyx and TeeBee, All Or Nothing is rather appropriately named. The album opens with Heroes & Villains, a classic UK-sounding techstep effort. A lush, science fiction ambience is broken by pounding bass beats and hardstep rhythms. This clash between the two sounds, be they 'heroes' and 'villains' or the eponymous 'all' or 'nothing', becomes a recurring motif throughout the record.

Regular pulsing drum and bass tones battle for room against nearly symphonic backing melodies; when it works, it works very well.

Album highlight, Pure Gold, features acoustic guitar and a nostalgic rap from guest vocalist Kemo about times gone by, but it's intersected with cold, powerfully artificial-sounding electronica. Noteworthy cut, Skank, stands out and lives up to its name, providing some of the dirtiest and deepest electronic grooves of the year.

Australian ears may find early Pendulum the easiest touchstone for this music, especially in the latter half of the record where the more obvious sampled beats take precedence. Influences from Burial, and that particular school of dubstep, ('post-dubstep'? Are we using that?) shine through in the album's darker, final tracks.

All Or Nothing, on the whole, is repetitive enough to become trance-like, though not entirely interesting enough to stand up to repeated scrutiny. But for its occasional uninspired idea and safely played grooves, it is all too easy to picture a handful of these cuts still receiving regular spins at races, house parties and early morning clubs for years to come.