Some of you may have heard songs from this album. Some of you may not have even heard of it. It’s more groundbreaking than you might imagine. For a start, there are practically no musical instruments on the album other than the human voice. Bjork has taken the haunting voices of The Icelandic Choir and the vocal styling of Mike Patton (ex-Faith No More), Rahzel (The Roots), our very own home grown Shlomo, Japanese Beatbox artist Dokaka and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq Gillis, to create something sublime and unique. And to be honest, a little bit scary in places.

The album opens with quite a laid back track, Pleasure is all mine. The harmonic voice of Bjork blends in subtly with Rahzel’s deep throat bass and the Icelandic Choir. The beats are well placed and roll about like deep thunder in the background on this first track. We have to imagine that the vocal percussion aspects are not as we would normally hear from these well-known artists, but rather an extension of Bjorks’ musical vision for this album. We won’t be hearing any ‘huh, I’m gonna crush you like a rice cake’ from Rahzel or fast trance tracks from Shlomo! This is more about using them as replacements to the drums that we would normally hear on an album such as this.

Track three, Where Is The Line, sees Rahzel’s famous bass being taken by the computer and manipulated to create what almost sounds like a hardcore metal double bass pedal set-up for the drums. But the Choir and Bjork lend it a strange quality. The soft voices clash and merge with the beats in the background creating a vast soundscape. Moving on to the middle of the album we get Who Is It. This appears to be a more conventional song structure that anyone who has listened to Bjork before will probably find familiar. To us Beatboxers the beats are more likely to appear familiar as well. We can hear the solid basic sounds that we have all learned, but mixed in with some more complex techniques. This song lends itself to the simple, yet well executed and speedy beats, with some lovely lip rolls and deep throat bass sounds rounding it all off. This is one of the best tracks on the album in my opinion, and certainly accessible to most people.

Oceania is probably the most famous and well recognised of the tracks on this album - featuring our very own Shlomo from humanbeatbox.com. The track was used in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympic games with a huge array of dancers and choreography. This song epitomises the entire feeling of the album into one song. The soft vocals, the subdued beats, relaxed atmosphere make sure it is a rewarding listening experience. A few of the later tracks do not involve any vocal percussion but are still worth listening to as they complete the album in its eccentricity of genres and musical styles. Ancestors is a disturbing track to say the least. Harmony and discordance vie for attention in a song where your focus is drawn to so many sources at once; the shadowy Inuit singing, piano’s, the choir, and Bjorks sometimes awkward vocals. Yet it all ties together in a wonderful cacophony. The last track on the album is probably one where we can fully hear the vocal skill of the Japanese multi-layering artist Dokaka. The beats are clear, basic, and well executed. There are elements that I hesitate to call vocal scratching as there is no intention to imitate a turntablist. However there are aspects of word warping and word play that add to the overall atmosphere of the track.

As a final word I would urge anyone who is interesting in listening to something a bit outside the box to give this a chance. It might take a few listens to truly get into it. Once you do however, the rewards far outweigh the time it took to buy it and listen to it. Hope you enjoy it as much as did and still do.

Sources/references/links

Bjork's website