“DD Review: Fourth Dimension (4D) – Millennial Kingdom Vol. 1.”

Score: 7.5/10

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I review some tracks on this site (Menace Beach’s enchantingly apocalyptic, and enchantingly Britpop “Maybe We’ll Drown” being one) but I primarily review albums, which involves as we know sitting in one space and concentrating on the same thing for 40 minute chunks of time. Now, I have no problem with this—it’s what I love doing, but sometimes I wonder if I’m a behavioral outlier from the norm in my abidance of this activity, [1] and even more times I wonder if I’d ever listen to an entire album like this if I weren’t doing so for a project.
Now, Fourth Dimension definitely isn’t bad music, as the score I gave it will indicate. Listening to his past efforts (and da** does this dude put out some beats—he’s trained as a jazz drummer and gets his hands dirty with a world of synths and guitar for the hodgepodge) I am impressed with the current mix, although it is a bit clean. Not like latex-clean, but clean. But then, he is from California, which is a very clean place compared to the Midwest. [2]
What works? Well, everything, if you’re in the mood for it. Fourth Dimension, by way of Jody Giachello, flitters away on those drums like somewhere between a Stevie Wonder [3] and a ?uestlove [4], and the live drums format definitely has its advantages, if only in the department of your da**ed sooooooul. Still, at times this music reminded me of Squarepusher (being nowhere near as twisted or creative as Giachello’s Cali brother Flying Lotus, but then, what IS as creative as Fly Lo).
The “personality” of this music is arguably manifest through the LP and song titles, which deal with futuristic, vaguely apocalyptic themes such as the world-shifting “Millennial Kingdom” of Christ, and robots that are going to come kill everyone, and stuff. Seems as logical as anything at this point. Also the “Mr. Sinister” song did a nice job of actually imbuing a dark and tense ambience, Mr. Sinister per my research being some comic book character.
By my standards, however, and sorry if I’m being an a** here, but this music is SLIGHTLY lacking in personality, and this is often where collaborations can come in handy—just another set of ears to remind you to not take things too seriously, and maybe (possibly?) remind us that there can be some sinister in all of us sometimes. Still, could I find myself in the mood for this music? Without a doubt. Think you had a good Thursday at work, and it’s a 75 degree day in late April, and you’re hitting the bars, although according to Murphy’s Law that’s exactly when the entire clientele will commence playing like Fear Factory and Rob Zombie on the juke.
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[1] Although per the current “vinyl” craze, I should fit right in. Right guys? Didn’t you say you put those vinyls on and don’t stop ‘em for 40 minutes all the time?
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[2] Sorry for the weird tangent—I recently declined a review of some band called “The Dirty South”—they were more like the latex-sterile South.
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[3] Yes, for the record Stevie Wonder plays EVERY INSTRUMENT on the studio version of “Superstition.”
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[4] From classic American hip-hop “band” The Roots, now house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.