One Nation

While, for some, two spoken-word tracks--Untitled and Untitled (And Your Batty's So Round)--may bring to mind nothing so much as Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), others may find it all strangely addictive.

One Nation may not demand repeated spins, but its lack of form and formality is refreshing.

If you had to single out something as being symbolic of 2011, you could do a lot worse than this album.

At its best, One Nation sounds like a beat tape left to crackle for a decade in somebody's garage, a kind of post-Chronic spin on one of those far-out late 70s dub-inflected collaborative krautrock LPs. But other times it feels like a series of conceptual curios that seems to think holding the listener at arm's length might even be too close.

One Nation's ability to alternate and combine insolence with detachment yields moments of inspired incongruity. [Jul 2011, p.49]

Curdled cuts of lover's R&B are oddly beguiling, but best are the dancier cuts like "Warlord," a blissful excursion in strobing percussion and luxurious, frothy synths. [May 2011, p.88]