Urban Biology

Rate It! Avg: 4.0 (42 ratings)
Urban Biology album cover
Album Information
EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 15   Total Length: 71:36

Write a Review 3 Member Reviews

Please register before you review a release. Register

user avatar

Brilliant

Evgeny

It's one of best albums I heard for the last year. Beautiful Hip-Hop/IDM music. I can compare to Prefuse73 'One Word Extinguisher' and Dabrye 'One Three'. Excellent.

user avatar

decent hip hop IDM

Subrock

I downloaded this album after being very impressed with the sample clips. Overall a pretty good album if you are looking for some hip hop influenced IDM. Unfortunately, a lot of these track lose steam after a minute into the song and some of them fail to get anywhere at all. After hearing, Prefuse 73's "One Word Extinguisher", Machine Drum's "Urban Biology" seem a bit amateurish in comparison. But there are some very strong tracks in this album, and several original ideas that makes this a nice listen. It certainly could have been better, but overall a nice effort.

user avatar

Instant Classic

pea

A most excellently crafted, intricate and soul exploring piece of work. It's a classic for me already, from day one.

Recommended Albums

eMusic Features

They Say All Music Guide

Pitched between the dancefloor and the chill-out room but definitely leaning toward the latter, Machine Drum’s second album, 2002′s Urban Biology, moves away from the IDM leanings of 2001′s Now You Know into an artsier, trippier sound not far removed from DJ Spooky’s turntablism. These 15 pieces are built on samples and found sound tapes, not breakbeats, but there’s a similarly musique concrète feel to the way tracks like “Cream Soda Part 1″ and “Urban Biology” mix heavily processed ambient location recordings and wiggly synth lines, or the way the six-minute “Countchocula” conflates cool, vibey keyboards with a vocal sample that sounds like a single line by some unknown MC broken down into its component syllables and shuffled around according to pitch and melody, not meaning. At nearly 72 minutes, there are a few lesser tracks, and even a couple of the good ideas go on a minute or two longer than they should, particularly the nearly nine-minute dream-pop trifle “Floss.” Overall, however, Urban Biology builds on the better ideas of Now You Know and takes them into even more interesting new directions. – Stewart Mason

more »