Re: More reviews: Procect 23

tyler askew (ta6256a@american.edu)
Sun, 13 Oct 1996 10:44:55 +0000


just thought i would deliver the polar opposite stance on this one, so
as not to have all of you discouraged....this first release from
cleveland and co. (marque gilmore and dj le rouge) is my opinion a
beautiful mixture of chaotic beats and smooth melodies (cleveland's
voice + nice horns)...the peshay mix is more mellow in my
opinion...check the wicked drums at the end of the original...

tyler

Mark Allerton wrote:

>
> "Pleasure And The Pain" - Project 23
>
> Project 23 is Cleveland Watkiss' new drum & bass project on Dorado, and
> being a fan of his from way back I was really looking forward to hearing it,
> especially reading some of the comments about the thing from him and others
> in mags like Straight No Chaser.
>
> All of which makes this 12" doubly disappointing. It's not good drum & bass,
> the vocals aren't up to much, and the lyrics are wack. The Peshay mix on the
> flip is good stuff, but you could easily strip out all remaining traces of
> the original and still have a great track. Watkiss is a great singer -
> listen to him on Outside's "Big City" for example, but on "Pleasure" he's
> not stretching himself at all - there's no tune worth speaking of and it
> ends up sounding little different from the MC'ing he does at Metalheadz,
> which I can't imagine anyone queueing up to hear in it's own right. The
> lyrical content can be summed up as "I'm really into jungle ever since I
> heard it on Kool FM in '92", which is the sort of cack-handed attempt at
> establishing street credibility that I always hated in early attempts at
> jazz rap - it's really only one step better than "Hey, we're rappers and
> we're rapping over jazz". In other words one step better than really very
> bad indeed.
>
> All of the above makes it sound really awful. It isn't - it's OK, but just
> nowhere near as good as I think anyone has a right to expect from someone as
> talented as Cleveland Watkiss, especially in the light of his own hype about
> what he's doing now.
>
> ..Mark..
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mark Allerton Mark@warmspot.compulink.co.uk
> http://www.compulink.co.uk/~warmspot/