Amon Tobin, the Two Fingers’ album Two Fingers and The Bug are the obviously the predecessors of the warped mindscape of King Cannibal (aka Dylan Richards).

He’s already impressed us with the single, ‘‘Virgo’ / ‘Murder Us’’; the former featuring Face-A-Face and the other features Jahcoozi who excelled with the Blitz’n Ass, in fact we love everything that Robert Koch does (including his Cerebral Vortex)

The rest of the album is mostly instrumental but before that, what a coup getting Daddy Freddy on the killer track ‘Dirt’. You will recall that Daddy Freddy (with Asher D and Simon Harris), created the first successful amalgamation of dancehall and reggae; henceforth known as Ragga. ‘Dirt’ is a track that’s drained the Ragga Twins of any light and dragged into the basement and given a kicking (not literally of course) but ‘Dirt’ is hard.

But as King Cannibal has already added “brutal” to “industrial dancehall” on Senseless Records’ compilation Vocals and Versions, it still doesn’t prepare you for the fearful nightmare of ‘Colder Still’; you certainly wouldn’t want to be in Dylan’s head when he’s having nightmares (Let The Night Roar is he named it after a quote by “nutter-cultist” Jim Jones).

Radio 1’s top bass head Mary-Anne Hobbs has already called King Cannibal “too dark!” and he doesn’t disappoint; an incredible progression since he was making mix tapes a few years ago including the renown A Friendly Game of Chess with Buddy Peace (he formerly of Banquet Records in Kingston and the famous Daedelus in-store, see HERE).

One of the first tunes he produced was ‘Aragami Style’ (that’s a favourite with Mr. Tobin) and the idea of warping d’nb’ and dancehall set the scene for the rest of the album. ‘So… Embrace The Minimum’ and ‘The Untitled’ adds the intriguing mix of minimal, ambient and dubstep cinemascope (‘The Untitled’ sounds like a knife sharpening session and worse - yikes!) whilst there experimental noise fans will enjoy ‘Onwards Vultures’.

The album ends on ‘Flower Of Flesh And Blood’ which encapsulates the rest of the album in an almighty 303 fuelled climax.

If you enjoy Let The Night Roar, there might be something wrong with you but don’t tell anyone, they might try and fix it - King Cannibal’s gonna eat you up!

Reviewed: King Cannibal - Let The Night Roar (Ninja Tune) Cat. No: ZENCD151 Release date: 12th October 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Intro (0:59)
2 Aragami Style (6:14)
3 Murder Us featuring Jahcoozi (6:16)
4 Virgo featuring Face-A-Face (5:03)
5 So… Embrace The Minimum (5:48)
6 Dirt featuring Daddy Freddy (4:58)
7 Colder Still (6:07)
8 A Shining Force (6:12)
9 The Untitled (5:40)
10 Onwards Vultures (5:32)
11 Flower Of Flesh And Blood (6:40)

Links:
www.myspace.com/kingcannibal
www.jahcoozi.com
www.myspace.com/jahcoozi
www.ninjatune.net
www.myspace.com/daedelusdarling
www.beggars.com
Banquet Records. Address:, 52 Eden Street, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Phone: 020 8549 5871. Times:, Open from 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday www.banquetrecords.com
Slices - Issue 3-09 Rober Koch vs. Cerebal Vortex www.eb-slices.net