BnB Review: Tipper – Broken Soul Jamboree

Written by Manu Ekanayake

Downtempo -

Since his first album, 1999’s Critical Path, Dave Tipper has wanted to expand from the nu-skool breaks sound he helped create with his earliest productions.  But it’s only since he created his own label, Tippermusic, in 2005, that he’s been able to showcase his wide-ranging sound, which goes from trip-hop to ambient and from electro into dubstep and broken beat territory.

With Broken Soul Jamboree, though, we find Tipper firmly in the mood to make some lush grooves. This feels just like the ‘concept album’ the press release promised, but for a change it seems like this release lives up to the hype. This album is all about using various intricate soundscapes to take the listener on an extraordinary emotional journey. And believe me, I wouldn’t lapse into that kind of journalistic hyperbole unless it was deserved…

The delicate strings of Big Question, small head signal your entry into a world of tablas and hand-claps, making the whole affair sound like an ambient journey to the Far East.  This mellower tone continues until Brocken Sceptre, which uses  strings again to take you into a souk for a wander around, before the squelchy synths and throbbing tablas indicate that you’ve strayed into the wrong part of town.  By the track’s end you’re in techno territory for a while, before things slow down again…

Cinder Cone is another sinister number, all acid darkness in the midst of a nightmarish mission round forbidding territory. This definitely hints at Tipper’s background in film and television soundtracks, as it sounds like the theme tune to a hallucination that manages to be both scary and seductive at the same time.

But there’s lighter stuff here too, like on Tit For Tat or Herriot Method. Then the whole thing comes to a reverberating yet melodious end with Ever Decreasing Circles, which features the use of a hang drum, a new instrument that was just invented in 2000. If ever a producer was going to use such an innovative device, it was always going to be Tipper.

Our verdict:
A beautifully contructed downtempo album, it would be a shame if you only listened to this when you'd just come in from a night out - to really get the benefit, make sure you have a good go at it when you're sober(ish) with the lights down low. 

Stand out tracks: Big Question, small head and Brocken Sceptre  
Weak moments: Nope, not on Tipper's watch.

Rating: 9.0/10
Label: Tippermusic
Release date: February 13^th, 2011

1. Big Question, small head
2. Cuckoo
3. Class Roaming Vapour
4. Brocken Sceptre
5. Dead Soon
6. Cinder Cone
7. Herriot Method
8. Neuron Huskie
9. Tit For Tat
10. Reality Harshness Defender
11. Royal Dragon Sir
12. Hourglass Infringement