GOLDIE - Timeless - Album Review

GOLDIE – Timeless – Album Review

During the period of 1992 – 1995 i spent a lot of my spare weekends, and most of my money visiting London, purely to buy records.

To me, as a young up & coming DJ back then, getting friendly with the guys in the best shops around the UK meant you stood a better chance of getting the best upfront music held over for you before you arrived, and therefore (in theory) standing out from those DJs who just shopped in Virgin Megastore. It also taught me so much about how record shops were organised and run.

Some of the main inspiration for my own shops came from these legendary institutions.

I was heavily into jungle and early breakbeat hardcore back then and my first ever mixtapes that i would sell at raves for £5.00 were all filled with tunes i got in London, from labels such as Reinforced, Moving Shadow, Metalheadz, Basement, Formation etc – these records are worth an absolute fortune now when you try to purchase one that you may have given away at some stage over the years.

I bought this particular album from one of my favourite record shops in the world – Black Market Records

This small, but perfectly formed aladdin’s cave of the coolest, upfront vinyl was situated right bang in the middle of Soho, in London’s West End and attracted music buying tourists from all over the world.

When you entered the shop and squeezed your way through the throngs of House Music & Garage buyers all frantically trying to get the latest promos to themselves, there was a door, further down the store that lead you down a very narrow, acoustic foam padded stairway, into the basement – this is where the Drum & Bass / Jungle was housed. To me, this was just the coolest place on earth.

This shop was like the holy grail of all things upfront. Everything Nicky (Blackmarket) behind the counter recommended must be brilliant, so therefore it was purchased – and mostly for £5.99 as well (crazy)

So, Goldie’s monumental album Timeless was purchased, along with a huge bag of white labels and pre-release gems, and a couple of house nuggets from upstairs on the way out (obviously)

For me, setting aside that it is THE absolute essential underground breakbeat album of the 90’s, this album is more about summing up the peak years in the early stages of a young lad’s DJ career and most importantly, the knowledge that we all gathered from music like this.

The level of work that Goldie and studio partner Rob Playford ploughed into this album is nothing short of jaw dropping. The razor sharp, non formulaic drum programming, soulful chord progressions and atmospherics throughout are so intricate and thought provoking. Tracks on this album like the iconic “Inner City Life” were light years ahead of their time. They raised the bar and set a precedent at the time to which the rest had to follow. This album upped everyone’s game in my opinion.

This was one of the first electronic long players that i bought and appreciated as an absolute journey to sit down and listen to. These weren’t club DJ tracks for me.

Ironically i still believe this record to be ‘Timeless’ as in, locked in a certain period but not affected by the passing of time or changes in fashions.

I think as we mature and understand life a little bit more, music like this from our formative years actually means so much more. It’s a stamp in our own personal growth timeline.

This is just a stunning album to me.