Hive - Devious Methods

Contemporary beat freaks care little for petty genre boundaries. While anachronistic hip-hop heads are busy keeping it real, their more open-minded dance-music partners are spilling over into new, unexplored territory. Take Los Angeles's Hive, for example. Hive's first album, the independently released Working with Sound, bridged instrumental trip-hop with casual jazz piano licks. Hive's even more at home on Devious Methods, the follow-up LP. Here, the beats come harder and faster and dip into aggressive ambient sounds and hardstep drum & bass, bringing along some angry guitars and a whole slew of voice-overs for the loud and bumpy ride. Unafraid to road-test new combinations, Hive plants flags for himself as a leading pioneer of the ever-expanding U.S. electronic scene. --Jon Caramanica Amazon.com

get this if you like DnB

Top Notch.

One of my complaints with getting DnB in an LP format is that mix CDs are usually too homogenous in style, and original productions (few and far between that they are) are spotted with filler tracks and aren't that listenable.

This is different, I can't think of any filler tracks on here, they are all pretty much solid IMO. Hive keeps things interesting with lots of vocal samples which glue everything together quite nicely for an entire front-to-back listen, this has been been and probably forever will be one of my favorite DnB CDs of all time. The vocal samples are a catchy blend of sci-fi, horror, and freaky-geekiness that underscore a very heavily hip-hop-laden DnB beatdown.

Just about perfect. March 27, 2008

Awesome sound

As a life-long fan of all kinds of electronica, and wider genres of music - this album has to be one of the most incredible I've ever heard. The entire thing is an ambrosia-like blend somewhere DnB, acid, trip-hop mixed with Hive's truly unique style.

This is one of the records that will go down in history as groundbreaking. Everyone who's vaguely interested in electronica should hear it. December 18, 2006

A tad overrated

I'm sorry, I really would love to say that I loved this album, I remember hearing "Ultrasonic Sound" on "The Matrix" soundtrack, and knew I had to get this CD. However, one rule seems to remain constant in the world of Drum and Bass: if done well, it sounds beautiful, but if not, it just sounds like noise, and thats what so much of this album sounds like, noise. Somewhere after the first 5 tracks, it seems to get very repetitive and downright boring, the only thing I got out of the final tracks was the enjoyment of hearing the same "Time" sample that's in DJ Shadow's "In/Flux". If the first five songs were kept, and then, say, had a few better tracks holding up the back end of this album, it would've been absolutely terrific. Until then, this will remain in my "CD's I Kinda Like, But Would've Liked So Much Better If I Just Found It In A Bargain Bin Instead Of Intentionally Looking For" pile. October 5, 2005

a classic from day one

I love this album. I heard it when it came out, and I still play it out 7 years later. I don't know how the kids I was chilling with knew to buy this album back then, but they always rocked out to Ultrasonic Sound. I finally found and bought the album about a year later. That track blew my mind then, and the whole album still does now. It's a thematic, mind-bending experience through both the fierceness and lulling vibes of the drum&bass journey as it should be felt in its entirety. Synthetic Rhythms and all the Moves Within Time tracks are examples of experimental deviations that a thorough EP should consist of. Devious Methods is an all-time favorite track to turn up the bass to...feel it thump, and let your brain dive off into the deep end. All dark d'n'b dj's will be looking up to this album for years as a milestone in turntablism and music history. buy it even if you dont know anything about drum&bass, it will educate you. August 15, 2005

good "lose yourself" beats

My biggest complaint is that some of the songs don't go on longer, because they are good daydreaming, heady beats. I'd never heard of Hive and bought it only because of a reference to them here on Amazon. I'm not disappointed. It's become one of my favorite cd's. It is STRONG music. December 19, 2004

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