James Hardway – Big Casino LP Posted by AlMachine on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 On this, his third album, James Hardway has tried to create a musical hybrid by fusing together, jazz, electronica, dub, tribal percussions and exotic latin rhythms. The result is simply monotonous. Big Casino lacks the oddball skew that would attract new listeners to this musical genre; there is a lack of obscure ‘cult’ samples that’s clearly needed to lift the tracks, in order to differentiate them. As it is it simply drones on and on, lacking vocals and direction, this is music that could be used to soundtrack any old platform game from yesteryear. I would like to suggest at this point: an update of ‘Jet Set Willy’ or ‘Manic Miner’ and then use one of James Hardway’s tunes on a level with a killer toilet – because that would simply be an apt application of the music!! Greg Thomas