Mr Speed - The Dreamer: BUY HERE!!!
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The Film Music of Benjamin Speed - click picture
Metropolis Rescore by The New Pollutants (Benjamin Speed & Tyson Hopprich) - click picture
"Mister Speed - Everybody Needs Somebody" music video
The People's Republic of Animation - my people! (Music by Mr Benjamin Speed)
Reviews – The Dreamer (Creative Vibes) Released 19/02/2007
In The Mix
Wildly eclectic and truly zany only begins to describe Mr. Speed’s off the wall debut. Its freaky DIY laptop aesthetic that marries Benjamin Speed’s mosaic of influences with a unique cut up technique that rips your imagination wide open. Drawing on everything from Beck to Ennio Morricone to the Ninja Tunes back catalogue to even Charlie Kaufman, Mr. Speed goes beyond just breaking boundaries and creates a parallel sonic universe that leaves the Neanderthals of antipodean hip hop behind in a cloud of space dust. Based mostly on subliminal concepts and sub conscious ramblings, The Dreamer is an enthralling aural sketch book and Speed uses his recording experience with hip hop crew The New Pollutants to raise his debut above the usual bedroom banger malarkey.
Impossible to classify and stubborn in its will to take you on a deranged musical bender, The Dreamer definitely pushes the boundaries of kitsch and glitch but its plight is a brave one. In an Australian market flooded by singular dimension hip hop that lacks daring and imagination, Mr. Speed’s debut is a diamond in a coal mine. Highly recommended.
Mess + Noise
Mr. Benjamin Speed is an acclaimed Adelaide film composer. Once he may have been part of hip-hop outfit The New Pollutants. Here and now, however, he’s an everyman guru casually rooting higher order philosophical concepts to global grooves. He’s demonstrating total Zen-like poise with regards to not only beatcraft but also life. He’s someone who understands that each day is an opportunity to manifest destiny. He’s living his dreams through until they are firm reality. Both streetwise and spiritually profound, The Dreamer comes across like some kinda guidebook for a blissed-out urban lifestyle. From the cheeky, up-tempo love letter ‘Miss Bitty’ to the classically massive hop-step of ‘On The Edge Of A String’, Speed’s positivity outshines whatever flaws are present in his slacker flow. He’s simply charming.
Immediately accessible affirmations are spat throughout – the mantras Speed delivers embrace worldwide consciousness and are healthier than your morning coffee. Sonically, the kicks don’t stop. The ill directive ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ features pristine pizzicato string plucks straight out of the 36th Chamber, whereas ‘Come On!’ is a bristly 8-bit slam, its over-compressed square wave bursts reminding that sometimes in order to reach higher consciousness one must first raise the roof. Transcend!
Sydney Morning Herald - (4.5/5)
The opening sounds like a scene from The Godfather; it closes with a hybrid of hip-hop rock. In between there are snippets of 1950s French soundtracks, moody trip-hop and multiple samples. The vocals sway between Beck and Buck 65, moving from the philosophy of art to observations of love. As a film composer by day, Australian producer Mr Speed has created a cinematic album whose array of sounds will enthral and beguile.
Music Australia Guide - (8/10)
Hip hop ain’t hip hop anymore, and where multi-talented Adelaidian, Mr Benjamin Speed is concerned, it’s a good thing. His solo debut, The Dreamer, is a ridiculously fun ride through hip hop, ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and heavily appropriated orchestra. Having already cast his oddity-riddled musical spell as one half of surrealist hip hop duo the New Pollutants, Mr Speed takes a step back from the beats here, instead focussing on his whispered lyrical flows and eccentrically cinematic sample sense. There’s nothing overly serious here, nothing too introspective. Think jumpsuits and bowl haircuts, battery-powered bunnies and early mornings…oh, and pancakes. Definitely pancakes.
Time Off Magazine
The Dreamer sees Mister Speed’s hip-hop and film-scoring past mix together in what is a consolidation of tunes conceived over a several year period of unfettered imagination, with the out-there song themes and varied concepts to match. From the Fatboy Slim funk of ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ and ‘Ready For Action’ to the unashamedly gimmicky quirk-rap ‘World Song’, Mister Speed delivers variety without need for cohesion. The entertainment he enjoyed in making The Dreamer is palpable, and impossible for the listener to ignore.
Cyclic Defrost
There’s a certain sincere yet kitsch world music thread throughout Mister Speed’s music that draws upon Bollywood soundtracks, ’50s go go music, Turkish wedding music and French ballroom fare. Then there’s that whole laptop electronic crunch where he seems to combine all of these influences in one funky assed tune like the track ‘Nudity,’ which goes through numerous changes, utilising all manner of conflicting short attention span samples, where he doesn’t even need the mic to tear it up and blow our minds. And it’s here that you begin to listen to the album differently, and begin to understand the complexity of his craft. This is an inventive energy filled debut, it’s self assured, hilarious and sad. It’s hip-hop with soul that strays far from hip hop’s roots into this bizarre role playing where Mr Speed takes on various alter egos, singing in accents, whispering in your ear or cutting it from the dance floor. He’s got killer production, but perhaps more importantly he’s got range and dexterity.
