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"Contents" mines terrain similar to that of previous Bomb compilations, with the style of each track pretty much chosen by the artists themselves. Not unlike drum 'n' bass, which long ago completed its metamorphosis from Peter Lorre into Adam Sandler, this sort of alien hopscotch jam doesn't sound quite as otherworldly to us as it did just a half-decade ago. General cultural nostalgia has caught up with turntablism's specific pre-Def Jam '80s reverie, making today's DJs seem a lot less odd or defiant. What was once a stretch for the imagination is now just a crook of the mind's finger, whether it's a fondness for checkered caps and DJs lording over their MCs or, in the case of DJ Upperkut, a weakness for Revolting Cocks industrial noise and Ronald Reagan vocal snippets.

Various Artists "Contents Under Pressure" Bomb Hip-Hop Records

It's difficult to pinpoint what "Contents" is missing. Of course immersion in originality is always going to lead to its normalization. And what's more, avant-gardists usually want to get paid after about a half-decade of avant-starving. That translates into a lazy trip-hoppiness that dominates several tracks. Hydrophonic Sound System's "Smoke Still Lingers" steals (as opposed to "bites") the melody of "Rapture," and Pepe Deluxe's "D.O.A." wants to be the theme for "Cops 2001."

Yet a lot of this stuff still possesses the ability to amaze on both a technical and aesthetic level. DJ T-Rock's "Annihilator Robot" is the epitome of new-skool/ol-skool and can also be found on his excellent upcoming full-length. DJ Wrecka's "Praise the Wheels of Steel" throws sampling laws out the window as any serious artist in this medium must do. Critics have a tendency to demand that the partiers become rioters (forgetting that they're first on the rioters' hit list) and often demand progress when all that should be asked is that they move the crowd. But now that the Kangol has been successfully added back to the mix, it shouldn't surprise anyone that it sometimes sounds merely old, not "old." If I suspect that much of "Contents Under Pressure" is only just good enough, it may be because, in the past, Bomb has done its job too well.
salon.com | August 26, 1999

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