Search results: Heart Attack

Review: Root Down is an experimental album from 1994 when The Beastie Boys locked themselves in a rehearsal space and went to town on studio experimentation and live jamming. It came between "Paul's Boutique" and "Check Your Head" and resulted in two previously unreleased versions of the title track and snippets of music recorded while on tour in Europe. There is the typical Beastie Boys mix of floor rocking riffs but with funky new flows stitched in and thus charts the period in which the band went from their post punk guitar roots to a more new-groove driven sound.

Review: A lesser-cited early EP by the Beastie Boys, 'Root Down' was one of the group's first forays into riding and fusing elements of jazz-punk. All the tracks on the EP are variations on the track of the same name, which hailed from the earlier 1994 album, Ill Communication. While the EP begins on a predictably Beastie hip-hop note, things take a sharp turn for the varied with 'Heart Attack Man', on which their hardcore punk origins are heard loud and clear, before all manner of live trip-hoppy funk goodness ensues with 'Sabrosa', not to mention the even weirder mashup 'Flute Loop'. Wild, sorely undersung stuff from the Boys!