RhoDeo 2024 Grooves

Hello, as regular visitors you know what to expect....some more music from Hull's music scene and Pork Recordings, no worry i'll get back to Steve Cobb later but for now i go back to 1996 at a time when Siberia was largely frozen and baby mammoths a rarity, so we can understand the reason to call yourself Baby Mammoth, alas Siberia has been thawing rapidly these last decades popping up lot's of instant frozen mammoths (another huge mystery where none of our scientists has any idea how it happened- i have btw) Anyway as these guys didn't grab the power of the internet when they closed up shop in 2003 their presence therein is surprisingly limited, this in contrast with the real baby mammoths that have been extinct for 10,000 years


Today's Artists are extinct, time to dig em up........N Joy

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Amidst heavy competition, Baby Mammoth is the Pork label's most prolific act, packing in five full LPs of blunted instrumental hip-hop between their debut in late 1996 and the end of the decade. Like other Pork acts Fila Brazillia and Solid Doctor, the duo of Mark Blissenden and Andrew Burdall specialize in earthy breaks and ambient atmospheres, more slanted to the instrumental edge of acid jazz than other producer-based trip-hop acts. The pair first met Pork label-head Dave Brennand and associate Steve Cobby (aka Fila Brazillia) at a club in Hull, where both band and label are based. The relationship blossomed with the release of Baby Mammoth's debut, 10,000 Years Beneath the Street, in 1996. Blissenden and Burdall then released two albums the following year (as well as an EP and single). Baby Mammoth settled down to a more languid release schedule with one LP release each year in 1998 (Another Day at the Orifice), 1999 (Swimming), 2000 (Motion Without Pain), and 2001 (Seven Up). After a year-long break, the band returned with Octo Muck in 2003. A year later, Blissenden teamed with labelmates Steve Cobby and Robert Ellerby from Beige for the Fabric 18 mix CD.

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‘10,000 Years Under the Street’, the band’s debut album, offers 12 slices of nice, pleasant groove, but in general doesn’t leave much of a mark on the listener. However, as usual with the band, there are a few tracks that surpass the general ‘niceness’ to offer something a bit more substantial. These tracks are ‘Mysterious Muses’, which includes an alluring female vocal sample, ‘Venus Vibe Trap’, and ‘Binks’, the latter an unexpected excursion into deep house music that proves to be the best moment on the album. The record is a bit too long, surpassing 70 minutes in total, and I don’t think it completely justifies its length. However, it generally provides pleasant enough background music, with the 3 tracks highlighted above justifying a more attentive listen.

 Baby Mammoth - 10,000 Years Beneath The Street  (flac   335mb)

01 Come Again 7:09
02 Mysterious Muses 6:13
03 Whiskey Soul 5:14
04 Dima 5:51
05 Venus Vibe Trap 6:05
06 Van 6:40
07 The Devil Lies 4:25
08 How Can I Love? 6:28
09 Thin Air 6:22
10 Binks 6:29
11 Oh Really!? 5:18
12 Past Lives 6:02

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A marked improvement over 10,000 Years Beneath the Street, Bridging Two Worlds shows a more mature sound for Baby Mammoth. Song development is less on an issue this time around, although some of the tunes don't have the complexity that would shoot them into the stratosphere. Not all, though: "Slipping Jigsaws" is a lazy-eyed journey that takes some interesting turns. "Moonburn" has a sax sample atop easygoing synth chords and a shuffling beat. And the final track, "Crack Phase One," is a delicious ambient snippet. Worth looking into!

  Baby Mammoth - Bridging Two Worlds  (flac   327mb)

01 Applegate 7:32
02 Musk Tusk 5:32
03 Tooth Rolls 5:04
04 Moonburn 6:21
05 Hoodwinked 7:19
06 Tolstoy 4:02
07 USF 6:15
08 Slipping Jigsaws 6:24
09 Herbal Warning 5:11
10 Sly Time 5:18
11 Tea Fumes 7:02
12 Crack Phase One 2:32

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Baby Mammoth continue their winning streak. Their third album, One... Two... Freak, has the fuller sound and more thought-out drum programming that marked their second, Bridging Two Worlds. But the music itself is more layered, too, adding a feeling of depth. "Additive," for instance, is simple, but catchy. The tracks are better edited too; they end before their welcome is worn out. There's a bit more moodiness as well - like the sustained tones on "Wend Off." Plenty to be happy with here. Although "Skidding on All Fours" adds a bit of skittery drum'n'bass, and two tracks ("Additive," "Warm Air Rising") have some vaguely electro leanings, the great majority of tracks on One...Two...Freak are simply excellent fusion-inspired productions.

Baby Mammoth - One...Two...Freak (flac   300mb)

01 Out Of Kilter 2:01
02 Skidding On All Fours 5:48
03 Additive 5:47
04 Luna Park 5:13
05 For Dear Life 4:58
06 Zen Butchers 7:06
07 Wend Off 5:15
08 Warm Air Rising 7:44
09 Basilica 4:53
10 Foxy Grandpa 5:33
11 Sleep 4:19
12 Sound In Your Mouth 5:03
13 Humdrum Doldrum 2:16
14 Level Freak 5:42

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 Swimming augments the duo's tried-and-true vision of earthy trip-hop with live musicians from around their hometown of Hull, making for a much more immediate record than others in the Baby Mammoth discography. Guitarist Tom Harland's jazz riffs lend a bit of energy to "Quick Kick," while others like "Long Stroke" and "Smoke" also benefit from experienced programming. These kinds of chillout albums are dime a dozen really, so they need not do anything more than chill you out and be nicely ignorable and they're doing their job. And this does that!

Baby Mammoth - Swimming (flac   381mb)

01 Quick Kick 3:02
02 Dark Goggles 6:25
03 Smoke 3:50
04 Porpoise Fashion 5:32
05 Long Stroke 6:57
06 Urban Waltz 4:20
07 Funnels 6:17
08 Captain Webb 5:02
09 Strong Downward 5:59
10 Chicken Chiefly 5:47
11 Lost Bearings 6:07
12 Scurvy Trick 9:04

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