- One of the most recognisable names and faces in the world of breakbeat, Rennie Pilgrem has just put out his second full length album Pilgremage, the follow up to his acclaimed debut album Selected Werks from 2000. Pilgremage sees Rennie Pilgrem mixing up elements of rock, acid, electro and house all with a breakbeat outlook and has him again teaming up with US counterpart producer Uberzone, Mara vocalist Sarah Whittaker-Gilbey and Breakspoll award winner MC Chickaboo.
Attention is the short intro tune incorporating frenetic jazzy drum breaks with a funky sax solo accompanied with jazzy keys and double bass and a male vocal sample. Defender is a recent TCR single release kicking off with a classical string arrangement, rocky drum breaks and later on dropping a rock guitar riff and acid electro hook. Sanctified continues on the rock theme bringing out harder distorted guitars and electro styled male vocal samples.
Coming Up For Air features the vocals of Mara's Sarah Whittaker-Gilbey and is labelled on the signle as the Field Day mix, after the massive reception recieved when Rennie played it at Field Day in Sydney 2004. Sarah's powerful vocals sit nicely alongside an electro synth melody. Fuego 2 sees Rennie team up once again with US producer, Uberzone for a stadium rocking breaks tune featuring a massive bass drop. The version that appears on the album features ravey synths coupled with rocky guitars and clean breakbeats.
Fellow Breakspoll award winner MC Chickaboo provides the vocal offering on Celeb where she attacks the attitudes and ways of celebrities. This time Rennie drops the syncopated breakbeats for a thumping 4 to the floor house beat.
As a bonus track, the album features a brand new version of Rennie classic "A Place Called Acid". Called Acid Part 3 on the new album, the tune lives up to it's name dropping a twisted acid lick giving the tune a wicked old skool rave feel. The vinyl version also features a vinyl exclusive cut with Lee Coombes and even though it is not available on the promo CD to review, if te styles of Lee Coombes and Rennie Pilgrem are anything to go by it would be a heavy slab of Rennie styled breakbeats combined with Lee Coombes acid/tribal throwdowns. According to the TCR website the CD version also has Rennie's award winning remix of Zer0's Emit/Collect - easily the breaks tune of 2003/4!
Pilgremage has an underlying theme throughout the entirety of the album - rock guitars mixed with electro hooks and signature Pilgrem breakbeats. Pilgrem's come a long way since Selected Werks and now he's found a comfortable zone in the field of rock-breaks, so comfortable he's been able to create an album full of it. Based on this release alone it should be intersting to see where breakbeat is headed towards especially considering that TCR is a label that features in many DJs record boxes and is a label that consistently puts out good releases.
Tracklisting
01. Attention (Feat Spence)
02 . Defender
03. Sanctified
04. Gladiator
05. Coming Up 4 Air (Feat Sara Whittaker-Gilbey)
06. Fuego 2 (With Uberzone) Exclusive Rmx
07. Celeb (With Chickaboo)
08. Trevor Pistol
09. Go Back (Feat Spence)
10. Atlantis
11. Acid Part 3
12. Zero Emit/Collect (Agatha Stomp Mix)