Search - Lo Fidelity Allstars :: How to Operate With a Blown Mind

By far, the greatest album I've heard in a LONG time!

06/27/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember the first time I popped the album into my CD player...it started up "Dear God...the paitents best intentions have sadly faltered. Despite the patients newly installed varnish brain, and being force fed gallons of viscus demented liquor, he is determined to obtain the new chrome spiders trophy...", well, we know how it sounds...or most of us do, I'd think by now. If you've heard the album. But anyhow, I was just like, "What in the hell?", and then it led into the song. BRILLIANT! The horns boomed in and the turntables were magnifcent in the scratching techniques...Coming from a fellow DJ, atleast. Then we go to "Kool Roc Bass". A seemless lead-in from "Warming Up the Brain Farm". Better that the previous track, in its respect. The 3rd track, "Kasrov's Revenge" was something of a treat, also. Almost like a good old rock song w/ some techno mixed in there. I loved the next 3 songs (I'd explain them, but I'm eager to talk about these next two songs...) Then we hit "Battleflag" (Yeah, I have to mention the one that got them fame in the states. The echo on the word 'Karma' is worth hearing the song everytime. Furthermore the Wrekked Train's screwed up lyrics. Lyrically they're upon the level of Beck...And suddenly we hit my favorite song on the album, if not one of my favorite songs ever...."Lazer Sheep Dip Funk". The name alone implies that it was going to be a ride, but then when the funk bassline gets going, as well as the guitar, you say to yourself "I like this! its, like, funk music.". And now the lyrics begin. I think I spent countless hours trying to figure out what he's saying through the voice filter. Its like an instrament w/in itself. I've figured out PARTS of it...Just not alot. "Will I Get Out of Jail" begins the descent into almost ambience music. soulful R&B almost meshed w/ loud drums and bass lines sounded incredible. And then we hit the 'epic' "Vision Incision"...I'll admit I didn't like this one the first time I heard it, but then I finally really listened to it. Now, save Lazer Sheep Dip Funk, its one of my favorites. You have to hear it to know what I mean. And then the last song, "Nitetime Story" was twice as good as the song prior to it. Almost like a synth piano in the backround, and a mournful woman crying out the lyrics. And then the 70 minutes of bliss ended..."I had no idea it would end in such tragedy", indeed..."

Crack, you're under attack

Matt O. | Boone, NC | 12/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The reason that a cd like this has garnered so many bad ratings is because people keep trying to classify it. They want to call it dance, dj, hip-hop...whatever. What makes this album great for me is that it defies classification. Its as if rap, trip-hop, house, techno, and disco had an orgy, and the Lo Fidelity All-Stars gave birth to the b-stard child of it all.Yes, "Battleflag" is an incredible track, and it may be the best track the album has to offer, but its certainly not the only thing worth listening to. For people who just want straight forward dance tracks, there's "Kool Roc Bass", "Blisters On My Brain", and "Lazer Sheep Dip Funk" (which is still one of the funkiest tracks I've ever heard). For people with a desire to bump/grind, there is no better track than "Will I Get Out of Jail", which has a final minute and a half composed of orgasm noises. And "I Used To Fall In Love" is a slow-dance with an open-minded significant other. But with the changes in tone on the cd, it becomes painfully obvious that this doesn't work as just a background cd at a party.Aside from "Battleflag", my two favorite tracks don't fit the idea of this as a party disc at all. The title track "How To Operate With A Blown Mind" is astounding. Minimal music for the first few minutes, while vocalist The Wrekked Train walks through the streets with a microphone and a bottle, ranting like a quiet maniac. You hear him cough, lose his place, f--- up the meter, and curse randomly, but its natural. It's real freestyling. Likewise the last track, "Nightime Story" has a sound more like Portishead than Chemical Brothers. While the All-Stars could have easily ended their cd with another funky dance hit, they instead sampled Three Degrees and made a somber lament which still plays well with the bass cranked to 11. Its a great end to a great, and vastly underrated cd."

Say what?

Hugh Jazz | Smallville, U.S.A. | 04/07/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Judging by the one-star reviews (in particular the one from the Toronto head below) merely confirms that, for the most part, when it comes to electronic music, the pop crowd is more interested in safe, club-ready, poppish grooves (for the record: The Chemicals are a shadow of their former selves, and Fatboy is steadily headed into repetition hell.) This is so deeply embedded into the pop psyche that when an artist/collective like the Lo-Fi All-Stars releases an album like this, it gets judged according to a flawed criterion.Those that say it's not funky enough have barely scratched the surface of this album. The funk is there...under a bed of dj scratching and sampled instrumentation. Aside from the hit "Battleflag", there's the hard drum kicks of "Kasparov's Revenge" and "Blisters on the Brain". And let's not forget the zenith of the album, "Lazer Sheep Dip Funk", which hijacks the theme to "The Way We Were" and seamlessly blends it with the ol' skool stylings of UTFO, resulting in a helluva rump-shaker.Those that complain about Wrekked Train's incoherence...well, it can be hard to swallow, considering how much Guiness he imbibed while recording it. But many times on the album, especially on the intro, he manages to come up with some of the wittiest word constructs on any album of any genre.Admittedly, there are some tracks that take a while to find a groove (the title song, for example), but, all in all, this is a griity, fully-realized piece of sonic wizardry."