Master View

描述

Master View is Hexstatic's latest offering. As the title suggests, this is about sight as well as sound – videos to all the tracks are included on a DVD. What's more, the DVD and the audio CD come in the same package, so you don't have to fork out for both formats. For this alone, Ninja Tune should be applauded. However, there's more to recommend this than mere value for money.Musically, Master View is 11 tracks of the kind of quality cut-and-paste, largely instrumental hip-hop you'd expect from Hexstatic (and, indeed, most Ninja Tune artists). It's unlikely to win any new converts, but if that's your bag, the music's top notch. But stick the DVD on and you're in for a real treat. A mixture of computer animations and cut-and-paste videos awaits you, some of which can be viewed in 3D with the glasses supplied and all of which are great, highlights including the retro video-game montage of "Extra Life", the singing parrots on "Perfect Bird" and the martial-arts fighters flying out of the screen at you in "Salvador". Different, and a real success. --Marc Bloomfield