Title: Kreakbos
Artist: Illocanblo
Release Date: 13 April 2014
Genre: Break Beets
License: CC BY-ND
Label: Kopoc Label

[Ed. Note: This review has been retracted due to the artist / label removing the Creative Commons license from the release. This changes the rating of the release to a 0 automatically.]

Introduction

Most of the time when I download a release I have an idea that I am going to like it. Or at least I think I will like it. But sometimes after a few listens I’ll find some things that are less appealing to me than when I first listened it. Illocanblo’s Kreakbos is one of the rare cases where it’s not just a little something that bothers me. Rather there a whole track annoys me.

Illocanblo’s Kreakbos

Frist, let’s just mention, Illocanblo (Ill-o-can-b-lo) is a popular artist. As I was searching for a video of one of his songs to use with this review, I found that there were lots of videos that used his music as backgrounds for other things. Like one was a sequence of graphic logo designs, and another the opening sequence for a show. Unfortunately, none of them used any of the tracks from this release.

But there is a reason for his material being used: most of it is beyond being good. It is very good, and lends itself to many uses. And, when I scanned through a few of the tracks before I downloaded it, I knew it was a release that I wanted to add to my collection.

But, when I listened to the complete release, there was one track that stood out to me as something that I just didn’t enjoy. And that would be ‘If You Have Something To Say’. I think this is supposed to be a bit of a humorous, maybe slightly sarcastic commentary on people who are in love with the sound of their own voices. The kind of people who just keep repeating the same thing (or over using a popular phrase) to the point that it becomes annoying. The problem is, there is a vocal sample used in the song that is itself quite annoying. But this is probably the point: imitating irritating people, in which case it worked too well. I had to skip the track.

Of course, this is probably just me. It’s not the first time I’ve had issues with a release that had a vocal track that I just didn’t like. The prime example is Spoonhead – The Monster Inside. But, all in all, this one track didn’t annoy me to the point that I couldn’t listen to the rest of the release. However, another track ‘Flake Shoot’ contained several similar vocal samples that while they weren’t as annoying as ‘If You Have Something To Say’, did come pretty close.

But despite a couple of tracks that I find somewhat annoying, overall this is a really excellent release. Lots of chilled-out, break beat filled goodness. Illocanblo has a very wide range of sound pallets, and rhythmic invention going on in this release. If you get bored (or annoyed) with one track, jump to the next and you will most certainly like it better.

In fact, if anything, this is a chameleon of a release. While all the pieces are definitely broken beat in nature, the range of style is impressive. The idea seems to almost have been to put out a release that covers many different styles of EDM and IDM over the past many years. Fortunately, Illocanblo isn’t going to be parodied on Saturday Night Live (like Avicci) anytime soon. Not that it would be right, since he has more skill and talent than Skrillex or most of the big name producer / DJ’s these days.

Conclusion

While a couple of the tracks on this release annoyed me, and I was pretty verbose about my annoyance above I do really like this release. It’s easy to hear that Illocanblo has a lot of skill in his production style, and the ability to put out really entertaining tracks. This is really a release worth checking out.