This first solo offering by longstanding Jurassic 5 turntable maestro Cut Chemist has been eagerly awaited (hearing the latest Chemist-free J5 album was a telling reminder of how skilled a producer he is). Although it’s not a knockout performance, The Audience’s Listening delivers enough quality to satisfy most listeners.
At times it seems perfunctory: the same mixing tricks J5 fans will recognise instantly get repeated outings, and the truth is that you can have too much of a good thing. This album really shines when Cut Chemist stretches his talents. ‘The Garden’ is a dazzling marriage of beats and female vocals; DJ Shadow fans left homeless by his new direction could do worse than give it a listen. ‘Storm’ is equally impressive.
It’s not unusual to listen to an album and hear obvious echoes of someone else’s track, but I never expected a pastiche of Dave Lister’s early classic ‘Om’: no idea if Cut Chemist is a Red Dwarf fan, but the parallels between that one-word masterpiece and ‘Spoon’ on the second half of the album are immediately apparent. ‘Metrorail Thru Space’ has some nice eerie sound effects, but the album loses momentum towards the end and fizzles out rather messily.
Still, it’s well worth a listen, and if you’re in too much of a hurry, start by downloading download ‘The Garden’ and ‘Storm’. You won’t regret it.