JON HASSELL & BLUESCREEN: DRESSING FOR PLEASURE

I can't say that I'm any expert on hip-hop, and I'm sure that, as in any form of music, there are exceptional examples of the form, but as someone who has used sequencers and synthesizers, it seems all too easy to come up with deep bass beats and drop in random sounds and samples. And for the most part, that's all this album is. Listening to it to do this review, I was just aching for it to end. It has everything I've heard in most jazz based hip-hop: a thumping rhythm track, hints of jazz solos (but nothing reaching an interesting stage), dropped in found sounds, and plenty of forced sexuality. I bet if it was played at all when it was released, it was in those pretentious euro-discos.

The only piece of any interest is tha last track, played by a mostly different group. This one is in the more familiar Jon Hassell style, a lush hypnotic rhythm, with Hassell's treated trumpet soloing over it. But it is way too little, and too late to save the album.