G-Stoned

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G-Stoned album cover
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EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 4   Total Length: 24:03

eMusic Review 0

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Michelangelo Matos

eMusic Contributor

05.05.06
Kruder & Dorfmeister, G-Stoned
1994 | Label: G-Stone Recordings / IODA

A trip-hop high-water mark

There's a clever accuracy about this milestone EP's cover, a parody of Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends sleeve. Like S&G, who appealed not just to '60s rockers but the parents who might otherwise have looked askance at the music, Austrian beatsmiths Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister helped mid-'90s electronic music find its way into the homes of folks who wouldn't have normally gone to the clubs where breakbeats held sway. But rather than rock your body, K&D's approach was to evoke a shaggy-carpeted den where the weed was primo and the beats — sampled, in the case of the smoky "Deep Shit pt. 1 & pt. 2," from Skull Snaps '"It's a New Day" — were utilized for texture as much as rhythm. This four-song 1994 EP is one of trip-hop's high-water marks.

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This is a milestone.

HalfAstronomical

Your stereo longs for this record! One of my favorites.

user avatar

a little too chill. a little too smooth.

BrentMurrell

I hoping this would be more interesting. If you want something more fun but still mainly chill out, try Bonobo. Also, what is with this comment "If Beethoven and Mozart were alive today, this is the type of music they would make"? Really? Not just Mozart. Not just Beethoven. BOTH?! Whoever wrote that obviously doesn't know the first thing about classical music. Barf.

user avatar

If Beethoven and Mozart

sound4beats

were alive today, this is the type of music they would make...Truly amazing, never gets old. A must have for any downtempo lover or novice. The Godfathers...

user avatar

awesome background...

adona9

... for your special activities, when you want the music to be there, but not stand out and break the balance. Like spices in a curry.

user avatar

This is great downbeat

MonkeyGrip

This is a chillout classic. That might be the problem that some people have with it. This album is not trip-hop, like Massive Attack or Portishead. But it is absolute top-notch downbeat-the best of the bunch. If you dig it check out Peace Orchestra, Tosca or A Forest Mighty Black

user avatar

intense!

Sharkness

the guy who thinks this isn't intense must be a total bore. this music is DEEP.

user avatar

Surely not?

replica

I've heard John Denver albums with more intensity than this. It verges on lounge and the production is too slick to give it any sense of depth. If you want the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up the as well as the aforementioned Massive Attack and Portishead try Trickie's Pre-Millenium Tension or even J-Walks 'A night on the rocks'.

user avatar

Well I just don't get it/ didn't neck it

Berts-flies

For me these guys are just glum. K&D Peace Orchestra, whatever, I can't get engaged with this music, even if I rip the heart from between my ribs and gripping it like a bar of soap offer it to the speaker (metaphor beaks down, take headphones out my ear and have a smoke or something).

user avatar

Yawn

Azziado

It's slow and good for people that are having a hard time sleeping at night. It might conjure some interesting dreams. It would make a good gift for an in-law or someone you don't really like that much.

user avatar

hardly...

StillWater

The most raw and intense trip hop? I dunno about that. I've been a K&D fan for many years, though I've been a trip hop fan for even longer, and I've definitely heard trip hop more raw and intense than this. Like a lot of K&D's work, this is very listenable, with nice beats, and a nicely layered, classy sound overall. But, as with so much of their other work, it doesn't have a great deal of soul. It's nowhere near as passionate and emotionally intense as, say, Massive Attack, and nowhere near as raw as, say, Portishead. I really don't know what people have been listening to (or not listening to!) if they think this is the most raw and intense trip hop around. This music is pretty good, but it's definitely not particularly intense and raw. Rather, it's polished, slick, low-key, and not very dynamic. Very much middle/upper-class 'white man's music', if you know what I mean.

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They Say All Music Guide

G-Stoned is a four-track EP packed with some of the rawest, most intense trip-hop ever recorded. The melange of syrupy beats and languid samples display Kruder & Dorfmeister with an impeccable grasp of constructing sounds, though the tracks seem to wander a bit before reaching their conclusion. – John Bush