|
The Dropper | 
 enlarge
| Artist: Medeski Martin & Wood
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy Used: $1.25
You Save: $15.73 (93%)
New (43) Used (30) Collectible (1) from $1.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 39417
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.3
MPN: 22841
UPC: 724352284122
EAN: 0724352284122
ASIN: B00004ZDM5
Release Date: October 24, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Tracks:
| • | We Are Rolling - Medeski, Martin & Wood, Medeski, John | | • | Big Time | | • | Felic | | • | Partido Alto | | • | Illinization | | • | Bone Digger | | • | Note Bleu - Medeski, Martin & Wood, Medeski, John | | • | The Dropper | | • | Philly Cheese Blunt | | • | Sun Sleigh | | • | Tsukemono | | • | Shacklyn Knights | | • | Norah 6 |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com's Best of 2000
"Jazz is the teacher. Funk is the preacher." It's a maxim upon which Medeski Martin and Wood have built a career. On The Dropper, they just happen to be doing a lot more preaching than teaching. Drenched in a gauzy fuzz, this disc scatters thumping beats, wild solos, and eerie, shadowed melodies across a landscape of cavernous groove. Although it's certainly not as accessible as earlier dance-friendly efforts, The Dropper is even more to wrap a brain around. --S. Duda
Amazon.com
Whether Medeski Martin and Wood named The Dropper in the hip-hop and dance traditions of "dropping science" and "dropping the beat" or to name-drop a delivery mechanism for liquid lysergic acid diethylamide, the album is jazz's best bridge to all three in a long time. This is the perfect electric corollary to early 2000's acoustic blowout, Tonic, with MMW at full tilt from the album-opening growl that announces "We Are Rolling" (a double entendre, perchance?). Medeski jumps on his keys with such force that it's several tunes into The Dropper before you realize you've come through hazes and blazes of beats and billows to hear a pristine midrange piano. The more overtly beat-oriented sound of 1998's Combustication appears periodically here, but so too do wild alto sax windstorms--care of guest and Sun Ra band veteran Marshall Allen and guitar thunder from guest Marc Ribot (among other esteemed visitors). But the real push and pull of The Dropper come with on-the-one beats punching through thick storms of sound and leading the trio into sweet, soulful spots like the bossa-painted "Note Bleu." Colossal shape shifting is the order of the day. So drop on by. --Andrew Bartlett
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Unbelievable July 16, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you are looking for an album that you can relax to and ease your worried mind then this is not it. However, there is enough groove in this tasty gem to keep you coming back for more. On top of that they lay down some trippy bombs like no other band in history. Dissonance never sounded so sweet. Tracks like We Are Rolling want to send you away but just as you're hitting the door or the stop botton on your deck the bass kicks in and you pause midair, and your booty starts to do this wierd shaking thing, and you're hooked. Remind you of any certain drug experiences? Anybody who wants to challenge their mind and soul will transcend the majority of pop crap that radio conglomerates force feed us by listening to this album. You won't find a better example of a band that doesn't give a damn about what the record company wants them to produce. In being true to themselves they have created an album that will never be top of the charts but is better by far than any chart topping album in the history of music. As with anything worth doing more than once, it takes a couple of listens to really get into this album/band but you'll be glad you did. It's like going from Budweiser to Guinness or schwag to chronic, you won't regret it! That's a promise.
4.5 stars August 14, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This album revealed a very different sound to MMW. Rather than the nice, jam-band friendly ways of Friday Afternoon and Combustication, The Dropper felt a lot more abrasive, more distorted. Billy Martin lays down some of his fattest grooves to date, on such tracks as "Big Time", "Felic", "Shacklyn Nights", and "Partido Alto", to name a few. Very out there, and I can see why they call it "The Dropper".
wow, i feel lucky July 23, 2004
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
WOW, as a 20 year old who has grown up in the most worthless period of music thus far, i feel lucky to have a group like mmw to evolve with. As a lover of progressive/non classifiable music, mmw is the definitive of this generation's zen. MMW takes you to another place. They have an extremely experimental and futuristic vibe which can only be compared to the european psychedelic era music ('69-'74) days of such groups as Gong and Hatfield and the North.
Here is my two cents on The Dropper:
First of all, give it a try...if you absolutely hate it, then listen to something else, if you like it a little, then try some earlier medeski, then listen to the dropper a few more times, and if you love it...well...i know how you feel.
MMW is a very experimental band, they dive deeper and deeper into musical space every album they come up with. Instead of fame and fortune, MMW is searching for a goal only John, Billy, and Chris understand (or do they).
Funk/jazz upside down and inside out December 5, 2003
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is MM&W's kitchen sink album. In addition to their usual keyboards, drums, and bass, they bring in a handful of other musicians to play guitar, congas, alto sax, violin, and cello. The band sounds like they've been listening to a lot of John Zorn --- they blend and twist the sounds, creating a lively collage of music that underscores their strengths and leads the way to new ideas.The high points are Illinization (a funky march that comes on like distant thunder), Note Bleu (a straightforward funk/jazz jam accented by buzzes and chimes), and We Are Rolling (a thick 7-minute work-out that lives up to its name). If you're into experimental music or avant-garde jazz, you'll love this. Long-time MM&W fans might be put off at first, but they'll get into it after the fifth or sixth time.
Insane and Brilliant June 30, 2003
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
MMW's metamorphosis started right here. The Dropper took on a more loud, distorted approach than its predecessor, Combustication, also a fantastic album. This album kept moving, with high speeds and some killer grooves. The groove in "Big Time" sums the whole CD up for me. It just kills you. When I lost the CD, it was totally worth it to get it again; it's that good! Well Done, MMW... well done.
|
|
|
|
