MOG

I've never written about an album before so bear with me folks. This sort of feels like I'm reviewing a book for Reading Rainbow. I heard about this album from the Avalanches forum. Everyone there was going nuts over it. I had to find it. I'm a sucker for awesome things that could remotely sound like the Avalanches. The album is pretty laid back for having so many samples thrown together to create tunes. Not so in your face but it's not downtempo either. It's sounds like they're using a lot of hip hop beats sort of in the way that acid house would. Or maybe the way Wagon Christ uses hip hop minus the ambience. There's no minimalism in the use of the samples though. However they maintain a laid back quality in their use of samples that reference a nice blend of hip hop, disco, brazillian beats, 60's soft pop, and some Shibuya elements. Basically the album is pretty dope as far as I'm concerned. There are a couple of slow tracks but the album is pretty strong for a first effort. The strongest song is "Season of Young Mouss" which has a sample of lyrics from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5's Superrappin. Oh, and did I mention that they're Japanese? Some of my friends think I might be biased on this fact but this album rocks so who cares. If you can find it I highly recommend it. Try to find some samples to listen to before you buy cause buying from Japan is pricey. Insert end of Reading Rainbow review sfx here.