A fantastic album. It made me think of Shpongle a lot; it even has a hang-drum solo at the end!
I wrote a review for it. Check it out.
http://www.teknoscape.com.au/music-reviews/tipper-broken-soul-jamboree/
Looking at Tipper’s latest album, Broken Soul Jamboree, the cover art gives you clues to what lays inside: A futuristic junkyard robot grooving on some outer planet, surrounded by mushrooms. It is an eclectic combination of styles, seamlessly welded together into something rare and beautiful.
It combines Tipper’s trademark bulging beats and space funk technology with a wide array of acoustic instruments, all of which are played or programmed by the man himself. Hardly a minute goes by without a cheery banjo or spiralling washboard being twisted around the sinister computer effects. It is a masterfully constructed and fully realised world of Tipper’s own making, and yet it all sounds so effortless and accessible. Best of all, it doesn’t takes itself too seriously.
At just over an hour in length, the album never lingers on any one movement for too long. There are plenty of jaw-dropping moments but Tipper is always keen to show you his next magic trick. He never rests on his laurels, and never falls into the trap of simply looping his best riff for five minutes. This is in contrast to his 2008 album, Wobble Factor, which is less experimental but just as well produced. Broken Soul Jamboree is an album that you can listen to multiple times and always discover something new hiding under a grassy patch.
The album’s seamless melding of the organic and electronic is similar to Shpongle, or Australia’s own Spoonbill. Tipper serenades you with dreamy, glitchy ambience in the middle of a forest, with silly saxophones and kookaburras to keep you giggling. A cheeky salsa dancer lures you into a carnival ride composed entirely of nitrous, full of hypnotic gongs and mandolins. The whole thing is so luxuriously psychedelic, with beautiful harps and strings letting you drift off before dragging you back down with a roaring, slurping meltdown. Finally, an amazing hang-drum solo rounds off the album, bringing everything together in a beautiful percussion jamboree.
Tipper is a master of his craft at the top of his game. It’s hard to imagine what he will do next.
Broken Soul Jamboree is available to buy now on iTunes, Beatport, Additech, and Juno.
Tracklisting:
01 - Big Question Small Head
02 - Cuckoo
03 - Class 5 Roaming Vapour
04 - Broken Spectre
05 - Dead Soon
06 - Cinder Cone
07 - Herriot Method
08 - Neuron Huskie
09 - Tit For Tat
10 - Reality Harshness Defender
11 - Royal Dragon Sir
12 - Hourglass Infringement
13 - Ever Decreasing Circles
