High Contrast - Night Gallery (2017)

The High Contrast album I picked in my favourite albums was "High Society" from 2004. Drum & Bass had always been more for the dancefloor than the home but this was just about the most home friendly drum & bass album I'd heard.

The "Night Gallery" album came out around the time High Contrast started doing gigs in his own right rather than being part of a wider line up. I was there for that first gig in London and then saw him again a year or so later. I therefore got very familiar with this album at the time.

Over the last decade or so the demographic of the gigs I've been too generally speaking have been of the older variety. I had the theory that High Contrast fans were getting on a bit and would rather go to a gig than an all night rave, at least that's how I saw myself. After all it had been 15 years since his debut album and he'd been on the DJ circuit for longer.

When I turned up to the gig though I felt like I was just about the oldest person there, I couldn't believe just how young the crowd were. That said, many on the internet say High Contrast is a sellout or not as good as he used to be. He's making music for the kids basically.

To the album then and I must confess I've not listened to it for some time. It's got a decent intro that leads into the 2nd track "Remind Me" which is one I like. The following track "Questions" is decent too.

Then it starts getting a little bit experimental and that's where it starts to go wrong. Once we get to "The Beat Don’t Feel The Same" we're very much out of drum & bass territory. Whilst branching out into other styles is no bad thing, it doesn't really work for me here.

It's back to form with "Love On A 45" but then it's back to the experimental tunes. The album never really recovers after that truth be told. I thought one of the later tracks was decent enough but not worth sitting through the tunes that precede it for.

Overall it's a poor album with a couple of highlights and it tells me that perhaps High Contrast should just stick to what he knows i.e. drum & bass.