MH-227 Neotropic - White Rabbits After a string of successful releases for Ninja Tune's Ntone imprint, Neotropic makes her Mush debut with her finest work to date: White Rabbits. Utilizing collaborative live performances from a number of talented guest musicians on a bed of sparse programming, Neotropic has crafted a release that is a continuation of her migration toward warm, minimal, acoustically grounded compositions. Her blend of environmental audio and rhythms document many moods and transitions. Piano lines and strings drift above fragile drum loops, an unassuming guitar strum slowly develops into a moving body of instruments, and sporadic vocals muse on the difficulty of finding and maintaining love.

Tracklist 01. Girls At The Seaside 02. New Cross 03. Inch Inch 04. Magpies 05. Odity Round-A-Heights 06. Feeling Remote 07. Small Moves 08. Joe Luke 09. If We Were Trees

Release Details Release Date: 08/17/2004   Running Time: 56:30   2XLP/Out Of Print CD/Out Of Print Territory: World

Reviews Summary

Exceptional - XLR8R / This is a shimmering, intoxicating record - Metro.Pop / Showcases an artist at the top of her form, remaking her image on her own terms, and refusing to allow her music to be affected by anything other than the limitations of her own creativity - Pitchfork

Reviews

30 Music / All Music Guide / Aquarius / Basshead / Boston's Weekly Dig / BPM / Chord / Creative Loafing / Delusions of Adequacy / Download / Earplug / Exclaim! / Ghetto Blaster / Igloo / IGN / Impact Press / In the Mix / Junk Media / Metro Pop / Orlando Weekly / Pitchfork / Pop Matters / San Francisco Examiner / Scissorkick / Score Baby / Splendid / Textura / The Brainwashed Brain / Tiny Mix Tapes / Urb / Wall of Sound / XLR8R /

Neotropic's (aka Riz Maslen) music has always pointed to tribulations with classification. From her teenage days as an acid-dropping glow-stick girl through her tenure with the prestigious Ninja Tune imprint, Neotropic has consistently taken familiar themes and turned them into something fragile, personal and often strikingly beautiful. Though she's now switched from one abstract hip-hop label (Ninja Tune) to another (Mush), White Rabbits picks up in a similar vein to 2001's La Prochaine Fois. Using a palette of both live and sampled instruments, Maslen has created a cohesive piece that's at once relaxed and organic but experimental enough to avoid a lapse into trip-hop boredom. Take, for example, "Inch Inch" which arranges delicate guitars and bass against a backdrop of unsettling drum patterns and flourishes of piano and looped tape. Stranger moments pop up on "Feelin' Remote" and "Joe Luke" but each track has moments worthy of repeat listens. - Boston's Weekly Dig