Ashley Anderson took his beat digging ways and crafted a sample-delic hip hop affair for his first Katalyst album, Manipulating Agent, which captured the imagination of beats fans worldwide in 2002.

Five years on, and his sophomore album still has plenty of samples and scratching but shows greater musicality, with even wholly sample-based tracks often sounding like they’ve been played by a band.
 
That band would be one from a 70s soul soundtrack. Indeed, the opening tune sounds like Curtis Mayfield from a Blaxploitation film score and that vibe underpins the whole album, although it is kept company by three other styles – hip hop, beats, and chill out.
 
The first of those is Katalyst’s strongest suit, with the strident beat, bass, and piano and quick-fire rhyming of Aussies RuCL and Hau on ‘All You’ve Got,’ plus the thoughtful rhymes of Chicago’s Diverse on ‘Dedicated’ and, possibly the album’s highlight, New Yorker J-Live’s spat out rhyme over the attacking beats and distorted guitar of ‘Killing Ya Self.’
 
There are solid ventures into faster territories with the ‘breaks meets super cool’ ‘May Have Been James Brown’ a guaranteed dancefloor hit and surely destined for a big remix, plus the Ninja Tune style sample-laden and sinister-sounding ‘What Are We Talking About’ with dark bass, haunting strings and horns accompanied by political vocal snippets.
 
But, the chilled vibe is the album’s weak point, sounding derivative of ‘Zero 7’ and not rescued by the likes of Katie Noonan on vocals.
 
It’s a mixed bag of an album that may not wow like Katalyst’s debut but it does have some serious quality amongst it that deserves a careful, and enjoyable, listen from anyone with a head for beats and soul.

Rating: 7/10

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http://www.teknoscape.com.au/forums/showthread.php?p=1462474

Tracklist:
1.  How Bout Us (Featuring Steve Spacek) 
2.  All You've Got (Featuring Ru C.L, Hau (Koolism), And Yungun) 
3.  I Know A Place 
4.  Say What You Feel (Featuring Stephanie Mckay) 
5.  Over And Over (Featuring Mat Mchugh (Beautiful Girls)) 
6.  May Have Been James Brown 
7.  Loaded Gun (Featuring Joe Volk) 
8.  Dedicated (Featuring Diverse) 
9.  What Are We Talking About 
10.  Step Up (Featuring Ru C.L) 
11.  War 
12.  To Dust (Featuring Katie Noonan) 
13.  Killing Ya Self (Featuring J-live) 
14.  He Is Society 
15.  Bladewalker (Featuring Adalita (Magic Dirt)) 

This was a RTRFM Full Frequency album feature.

Label: Invada Records/Inertia