Rennie Pilgrem - Pilgremage

Rennie Pilgrem is riding high in 2004 with his upcoming release entitled PILGREMAGE. As the name insists, Rennie is progressing as an artist and exploring both his roots and his future ventures. This album features a great deal of live instrumentation, as well as Rennie’s own stylish blend of funk-laden breakbeats.

Pilgremage begins with a short funky breaks intro track called ATTENTION featuring Canadian sax instrumentalist Spence. As Spence blazes away with an extremely intelligent performance, you can sense the vivacity that live instrumentation can bring to mostly pre-programmed music.

The next track starts off with a chamber string arrangement and drops into Rennie’s signature funk-infused breaks stylings. DEFENDER was definitely meant for the dancefloor. Although not as imaginative as some of the other tracks on the album, it does feature some nice percussion programming. SANCTIFIED comes right in with some cutlery-friendly breakbeats, and features some rocked out and overdriven guitar riffs to move the track along. To counter the rock n’ roll feel, the track breaks down into some classical strings at a couple of points.

GLADIATOR is one of my favorite tracks on the album. "Rock n’ Roll never dies baby.SHIT-DRO TECHNO IS BULLSHIT" This is the first thing you hear as the groove drops like a ten-pound barbell onto a hardwood floor. The track’s fluxing sawtoothed bassline cuts through the speakers and is driven even further by the synthwork underneath. Complete with an excellent build-up and drive out, this track will be a DJ favorite.

The next track is actually the first single from the album and is titled COMING UP FOR AIR. It features Sara Whittaker-Gilbey’s vocalizations in this sweet anthem styled composition. The track keeps the balance with the vocals by incorporating a rather nasty bassline to grind the movement on.

FUEGO is an epic piece with more cutlery-laden breakbeats and soaring trance-like synth stabs. Rennie really makes it easy for DJs of all genres to grasp his music. This one can be easily dropped into a trance set, as well as any breaks undertaking.

CELEB comes in with MC Chicaboo’s spoken word vocals as he preaches of the pitfalls of fame. This track drives its way through a progressive field of bass and breaks. Not the most innovative composition on the album, but it does have its strong points; a good mixer nonetheless.

TREVER PISTOL moves in with some Arabian-styled synth melodies accompanied with some old school synth stabs and rock n’ roll breaks.

GO BACK is another one of my favorites on the album. It is extremely house-oriented in its movements and instrumentation and could easily be worked into a funky house set. Along with more of Spence’s saxophone work, there is also some excellent Clav keys being rocked out here. Very funky indeed – great job Rennie.

ATLANTIS comes right in with Rennie’s smooth synth fingerboarding and signature straight-forward breakbeats. Until the track comes back in with some sweeping drumwork around the half-way mark, there is really not that much to offer here. I’ll pass on this one.

Bonus track: ACID PART 3 is a track that Rennie features for the motion picture "The Football Factory." As the name implies, the track’s acid lines rock over Rennie’s chemical styled breakbreats. This is an extremely well produced composition from beginning to end. The synthwork and movements are excellent and showcase the artist’s true colors and ability.

Overall, the album is should produce some nice singles; and the fans won’t have any complaints either.