BlakRoc – Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) by The Line Of Best Fit
So what do we think? Not bad, eh?
I think there’s better to come. Album due on November 30th.
Posts Tagged ‘hip-hop’
October 12, 2009
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Thavius Beck – Dialogue
By Ash in Music Reviews
“I’m of the opinion that if you have a platform to say something, don’t just say some bullshit. Use that platform to say something worthwhile – it doesn’t have to always be ultra conscious or serious, but if every song you make is about bitches, cars, and drugs, you either live a very empty life or you’re a huge liar.” Thavius Beck.
Titling an album can be one of the hardest things an artist has to do. Without clarity of vision, it’s possible to get completely lost, enmeshed within the solitary jungle of creation with no room for thought about what may happen along the way and how those eventualities might affect this daunting task.
As can be seen from his quote, Thavius Beck would appear to not suffer these problems. Yet, calling an album ‘Dialogue’ when it’s really a monologue with a view to dialogue, suggests a propensity for argument. And arguing is pretty much what Beck is doing; with everyone, including himself.
Of the 15 burning, riotous hip-hop diatribes presented here, 13 carry one-word titles: ‘Painful’, ‘Hardcore’, ‘Money’, ‘Violence’ and so on. It’s important the listener understands the picture, so, lyrically; Beck deals in hefty swathes of brevity. Musically, however, Beck could care less.
From the off, anti-ringtone Ranthem ‘Cracking The Shell’ (“Do what you will to make your life just”), has much in common with the output of early Public Enemy recordings, by bearing facets set to unsettle listeners. With no silence, each track runs into the next, lending Dialogue a fake compulsion which only augments Beck’s argument for a platform to rap from.
Fortunately, the mechanical machinations he chooses to deploy are generally successful as he gathers source material from mainstream rap, before purifying it by pouring molten electrolyte into its current. Arpeggiated synthesisers and sub-bass lines are the musical staple of Dialogue with this combination being most effective on the neck-snapping ‘Go’ replete as it is with double-time verses and synchronised scratches.
Beck straddles a thin line between political gangster and sermonising buffoon, but Dialogue finds him confidently aiming for a casual hit upon any fakers that stray across his path. Where there is war, there are casualties; and Beck’s counting on that.
October 10, 2009
2
Whose Flat Top Ruled In ’89?
By Ash in Musical Murmurings
Who’s Flat Top Ruled In ’89? by BobaFatt
(’89 Intro)
De La Soul – Transmitting Live From Mars
Biz Markie – Just A Friend
EPMD – It Wasn’t Me, It Was The Fame
Boogie Down Productions – Hip Hop Rules
The DOC – It’s Funky Enough
Bizzie Boys – Droppin’ It
Special Ed – Think About It
Kool G Rap & Polo – Truly Yours
(Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long)
Big Daddy Kane – Smooth Operator (All Night Gone)
De La Soul – Plug Tunin’
De La Soul – Potholes In My Lawn
Digital Underground – Underwater Rimes
(Edwin Starr – Easin’ In)
Tone Loc – Loc’ed After Dark
Ice T – High Rollers
London Posse – Live Like The Other Half Do
Demon Boyz – Lyrical Culture
Soul II Soul – Ambition Rap
Eric B & Rakim – In The Ghetto
MC Lyte – Poor Georgie
MC Lyte – Stop, Look, Listen
Special Ed – I Got It Made
Young MC – I Come Off (Southern Comfort Remix)
Def Jef – God Made Me Funky
NWA – Express Yourself (Remix)
Queen Latifah – Evil That Men Do
Heavy D & The Boyz – You Ain’t Heard Nuttin’ Yet
K Solo – Your Mom’s In My Business
Chill Rob G – Court Is Now In Session
(De La Soul – Buddy (Remix))
Nice & Smooth – Early To Rise
3rd Bass ft KMD – The Gas Face
EPMD – So Wat C ha Sayin’
EPMD – The Big Payback
Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance
Slick Rick – Children’s Story
Slick Rick – Mona Lisa
Slick Rick – Teacher Teacher
De La Soul – Ghetto Thang
De La Soul – Say No Go (Say No Dope Mix)
Beastie Boys – Shake Your Rump
Kool G Rap & Polo – Poison
Ultramagnetic MCs – Chorus Line
Redhead Kingpin & The FBI – Do The Right Thing
Chill Rob G – The Power
Kid Frost – La Raza
Big Daddy Kane – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now
LL Cool J – Jinglin’ Baby (Still Jinglin’ Remix)
LL Cool J – I’m That Type Of Guy
She Rockers – On Stage (Broad Beans Mix)
Young MC – Know How
(Big John Hamilton – Big Bad John)
Big Daddy Kane – Warm It Up, Kane
Masta Ace – Letter To The Better
Jungle Brothers – What U Waitin’ 4?
Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike
De La Soul – Jenifa Taught Me
De La Soul – Me, Myself & I
Silver Bullet – 20 Seconds To Comply
Hijack – Badman Is Robin
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – The Groove (Jazzie’s Groove)
(’89 Interlude)
Public Enemy – Fight The Power
(Bill Nunn & Spike Lee – Love Vs Hate)
September 27, 2009
0
Anti-Pop Consortium – Fluorescent Black
By Ash in Music Reviews
It’s been six years since Anti-Pop Consortium (APC) split: six years that saw MC Beans concentrate on his solo output, whilst MCs High Priest and M. Sayyid formed Airborn Audio. For those concerned that these separate adventures into digital madness have compromised the group’s individuality, rest assured that they remain as wily and indefinable as before. Though the endless arsenal of poetry undoubtedly suits the team of verbose, head-swaying rappers who consistently aim to outdo each other, newcomers to this style of ludicrous word play may want to think twice, as getting out-thought by the combined consciousness of APC is commonplace.
Fluorescent Black is comprised of a variety of hip-hop styles: the traditional head nod of Dragunov and Capricorn One sound like they could have been composed by DJ Shadow during his Private Press phase if he had recorded in a steel cave surrounded by armed synthesisers powered by the incorrect voltage. End Game, however, is a flummoxing addition with arrhythmic, stuttering drums and panned vocals that perplex the listener while simulating a space-like, oxygen-less atmosphere with use of heavy reverb. The old school gets a look in on the piano-led Born Electric, but it’s in the mid-section where things really get progressive.
As soon as the heavy, staggered bassline of Superunfrontable kicks in, it’s clear APC have booted up the hyperdrive with destination HEX-PERIMENT firmly locked on the interstellar GPS. Squirling, looping synths compete with creatively programmed 808 drums on Get Lite while the dead vocoder is resurrected to supply not just the hook, but some random burbling on an especially lively The Solution. Timpani, Volcano and C Thru U lead the charge out of the freak zone with Volcano tipping its angled baseball cap to novelty, ringtone rap and glossy R n’ B. Shine signals a return to normality with a nasty, digital, gangster bass progression and lyrical content to match.
Fluorescent Black escapes the boundaries and trappings of traditional hip-hop, living and breathing within its own freely formed genre of the art. Whether the earth is ready for it is another matter entirely, and it’s not like APC should be bothered in the slightest – they’re light years ahead.
Capricorn One – Download it for free
September 27, 2009
0
Jamie T – Kings and Queens
By Ash in Music Reviews
What’s happened to the youth of today? If they’re not confessing their innermost thoughts on record, they’re embarrassing themselves on X-Factor searching for a quick way to the top of the charts and fame everlasting.
From the current slew of young, indie artists taking their cue from hip-hop and punk to explicitly recount tales of personal experience comes Jamie T’s latest offering. With no messages hidden amidst a murky quagmire of metaphor or synonym, the homogeneous generation of Esser, Lily Allen, Arctic Monkeys, Jack Penate et al seek to exploit their personal development by riding on the back of ‘classic’ sounds while castigating and cashing-in on situations and dreams, shattered or otherwise.
With Dizzee Rascal topping the charts with his fun, faux raps, it would certainly seem that the single-buying public don’t always want to hear about crap shags, running from the law, or broken hearts. Nevertheless, Jamie T, with a voice that sounds like a grown-up Pete Doherty combined with a bit of Billy Bragg, has produced an album that, in terms of originality, has more on offer than many of his contemporaries.
Using tools comparable to those that littered his debut album, (Mercury Prize nominated Panic Prevention), Kings and Queens is similarly scatterbrained in both conception and construction. Never settling on one style, Jamie’s dark side provides menacing production throughout, tying this litany of songs together.
Sticks and Stones is easily the catchiest track here, with its bright chorus hook, “When there’s no-one left to fight, Boys like him dont shine so bright, Soon as I see the dust settle, He’s out on the town tryin’ to find trouble.” Similarly the curiously named Chaka Demus has a chorus that plays out like an old Motown song. It’s no test to imagine Amy Winehouse (or temporary stand-in, Paloma Faith) re-interpreting it at a festival and replacing the original with their version deep in the public consciousness whilst making millions from it.
Musically, the album generally gains in strength as the album progresses. Starting with the sparse, clanking electronica of 368, the guitar-led Hocus Pocus follows (sounding like the Arctic Monkeys used to); but the apex is visible on Castro Dies and the ’80s inspired Earth, Wind and Fire. Two acoustic tracks (Emily’s Heart and Jilly Armeen) allow Jamie to promote himself as a busking poet, and represents a facet hitherto invisible.
Kings and Queens showcases Jamie T’s affinity for chanted, football-terrace melody and a voracious appetite for rap, but the record is simultaneously let down by a distinct lack of lyrical variety that fears wandering far from personal adventure, nights out and relationships. This fact is amplified by British Intelligence, with its pseudo-political edge and Spider’s Web where our protagonist name-checks Obama, Osama and Gaza before bringing the song back closer to home so he can rap about what he knows: his life in the city.
Whereas bands like The Clash and The Jam that so heavily influence these musicians have had a discernible global impact, the limitation that hinders these young pretenders from making era-defining music simply stems from their reliance on recycling the past to make music for an ever-changing present utilising a common, finite, yet broadly limited commentary. Where’s the future in that? Only time will tell, but in the meantime it’s fair to say that Jamie T has earned his place in the transient tree of pop.
September 19, 2009
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Roc Raida
By Ash in Musical Murmurings
If you’ve ever seen the film Scratch, you’ve seen Roc Raida. An integral part of turntablist crew The X-Ecutioners, he also won the 1995 DMC Championships: an era I personally believe represents the epitomy of scratching. Ironically, it wasn’t the scratch he was really known for, but his development of the beat juggle.
Busta Rhymes announced Roc’s passing on Twitter today. He had a back operation, and tragically never really recovered due to complictions.
RIP Roc Raida.
September 14, 2009
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Gift of Gab – Escape 2 Mars
By Ash in Music Reviews
Travelling back light years across the galaxy, Blackalicious frontman Gift of Gab is set to drop his second solo album from outer space. Following on from 2004’s 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, this similarly conceived foray into space fantasy revolves not around planets per se, but circles the abuse of mother earth by those she granted existence. An environmental hip-hop album, you ask? Not just environmental, but also a little hippyish too. As Gab himself says, “We might have to escape to Mars or somewhere else if we keep taking the planet we live on for granted.” Quite.
Not alone in his quest, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Rhymesayer Brother Ali appear on the jazzed out Dreamin’, one of the album’s highlights. The beats provided by DNAEBEATS are spacious enough to allow Gab plenty of room to manoeuvre and deliver a fairly intense variety of flows. From the unremitting double time verses that clutter title track Escape 2 Mars, to the staccato stutter of Latin-inspired El Gifto Magnifico; DNAEBEATS even manages to slot in some ‘80s-inspired electro-doom on Electric Waterfalls whilst Gab preaches against the excess wealth of the West gained at the expense of the poor and sick. Refreshing, but simultaneously annoying and a mite patronising.
Compared to many emcees, Gab has provided something of an anomaly amongst 2009’s slew of aggrandizing hip-hop albums. Though by no means revolutionary, and somewhat miserly in content coming in at only 40 minutes for 11 tracks, this is still a positive and mostly enjoyable addition to Gab’s solo career. Just don’t expect it to replace your Blackalicious records or to convince you to pick up a passport to the red planet.
September 13, 2009
2
Snow Patrol – Late Night Tales
By Ash in Music Reviews
Stadium stalwarts Snow Patrol are the latest artist to add the most favourable aspects of their record collection to the burgeoning Late Night Tales series. Attempting to bring about a lulling calm with their selection of ‘choons’, Gary Lightbody and Tom Simpson take to the wheels of steel to produce a selection of relaxed electronic and acoustic meanderings that may be the perfect remedy to a hard day’s night should any fans of the band return home to find their extensive collection of Snow Patrol albums inappropriate for that precise moment. With the duo appearing to have little experience in either turntable proficiency or DJing in general, the listener should expect to find a somewhat crudely assembled and moribund mix.
Though successfully beat-matching Captain Beefheart (‘Observatory Crest), A Tribe Called Quest (‘Midnight’), DJ Food (‘Dark Lady’) and King Biscuit Time (‘I Walk The Earth), none of these individual moods are matched, which makes for a disparate listen. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse as tracks are merely started up as the previous track ends, making this sound like it could have been put together by an eleven-year-old armed with a tape deck who’s been granted access to his father’s record collection. In fairness, that’s offensive to many eleven-year-olds: they probably know their way around a digital sequencer better than any member of Snow Patrol and have never seen a tape deck.
It’s not that the mix is a complete failure: the transition between Arthur Russell (That’s us / Wild Compilation) and Jim Noir (Eanie Meany) is well judged and yet, for a band that survive on their sense of melody and harmony, segueing into the jarring discord of School of Seven Bells (Half Asleep) is bewildering to say the least.
Snow Patrol’s Late Night Tales threatens pace in its final third with a contribution from Holy Ghost! (Hold On) before the duo decide to follow it with Super Furry Animals’ ambient Download. Lacking any sense of adventure whatsoever, this seems to be the only way to include their exclusive acoustic rendition of INXS’ New Sensation.
An ignominious addition to the series, Snow Patrol should stick to what they do best and continue to charm the pants off Live Nation whilst leaving the art of DJing well alone, because there’s little demonstrable knowledge of it to be found here.
August 29, 2009
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Three Trapped Tigers – EP 2
By Ash in Music Reviews
’6′, the first track of the imaginatively titled follow-up to debut EP1: EP2, opens with a mournful, reflective fuzz before breaking into a warm, ’80s inspired, synth-driven wonderland that’s complemented by looped harmony vocals singing nothing but vowels. A sparkling, off-beat track that finds clean guitars subtly providing melody, the glitch elements of TTT find themselves temporarily taking a back seat as this introduction soars dramatically through grey clouds like a victorious Maverick in an F-14 Tomcat.
’7′ is altogether more familiar territory for the Tigers and the Tomcat’s fuselage is broken apart by pummelling, industrial, filtered drums that hide a menacing monosynth. ’7′ demonstrates that TTT are on their way to shedding Squarepusher’s ‘Big Loada’ skin that so ably protected them on EP1. Surging Led Zeppelin style riffs announce a change in time signature and the group segue from the dramatic to the melodramatic as they begin to waft gentle guitar harmonics at the recording desk. TTT’s strength come from their complex arrangements which are driven by an incomprehensibly intuitive groove. Now with guitarist Matt Calvert on production duties, EP2 benefits greatly from a vastly improved sound.
Set to present the greatest challenge to the listener. ’8′ is all squealing feedback, 303 squeak, mangled artificial harmonics augmented by manic drums: the musical heartbeat of a robot on amphetamine. Rewind, close the eyes and let the sounds pound. Soon, the chaos becomes robust, a groove locks and as the Vernon Reid guitar riffage climaxes, the song blows out like a candle caught in the eye of a fantasy hurricane.
The inescapable influence of Aphex Twin is at work with the mellifluous, sorrowful and dynamic ’9′. Reminiscent of The Romance Of Young Tigers who seek crescendo at every opportunity, ’9′s impending dissonance is unexpected, ending abruptly with the airy harp-like piano it began with.
EP2 is simply better than EP1, which, if you’ve heard EP1, signifies a somewhat speedy growth. To paraphrase the Wu Tang Clan: “Three Trapped Tigers aint nuthing ta fuck wit!”
Tags: 2009, drum n bass, dubstep, glitch, hip-hop, music, review