Mosaik - Camo & Krooked

In a genre like liquid drum n bass, with so much potential splayed at their fingertips, Camo & Krooked put out a fairly serviceable record.

The question is — did they capitalize on it? Well; "Mosaik" is a very solid record, spacious and atmospheric and rather grand in its execution. Not quite relaxed — such is the nature of drum n bass — but still fairly chill, "Mosaik" hefts a mammoth 17-track-long tracklist and progresses through it very nicely. Camo & Krooked have all the sound design they need to bring this project to life, from strong DnB beats to plenty of polished vocal performances, but it's the synthwork that proves to be the biggest talking point for the entire hour-long duration. It's the same synth each time, but boy is it a good one, and Camo & Krooked sure know how to use it, with the expertise that comes with a decade of experience in the game. Taking the energy off for "Mosaik" was a good choice, allowing the tracklist to shine through atmosphere rather than intensity — a welcome factor, one that ultimately ends up being one of the album's main selling points, and throwing in a couple of neat transitions certainly help the DnB duo's case. But whilst the mellow tracklist gives the record a consistent vibe — and still a good one, at that — Camo & Krooked don't quite do enough to keep it engaging. There are some genuinely cool atmospheres here, and some fairly creative ideas like "Broken Pieces" or "Witchdoctor", but the duo run out of steam quite quickly. Unable to generate enough interesting production differences or switchups, "Mosaik" begins to feel like the same song for a large portion of its latter half, both structurally and sonically, and oftentimes it ends up being lamentably forgettable. And so, to answer my previous question — I'd say Camo & Krooked have a lot more room to capitalize than what "Mosaik" achieves.

Make no mistake, "Mosaik" isn't a bad album, just a slightly boring one. I find myself often impressed by much of Camo & Krooked's synthwork and beatwork, but equally as much, I find myself zoning out. And so it does hurt to call "Mosaik" just 'serviceable', but ultimately that's what it comes down to for me; a solid set of tunes with a nice spacious atmosphere and sound design, but tunes which fail to explore further than the bounds the tracklist seems to impose.