Jon Freer’s Reviews –21st February 2006.
Albums & Comps:
Marc Mac Presents Visioneers – Dirty Old Hip Hop (BBE)
V/A – Soul Heaven Presents MAW (Soul Heaven)
V/A – Shapes Compilation (Tru Thoughts)
V/A – The Golden Singles (Sunburn)
Gym Class Heroes – The Papercut Chronicles (Fueled By Ramen)
Eighteen 18 – Body Armour (Northbridge)
DJ Olive – Heaps As, Live In Tasmania (The Agriculture)
Machomovers – Bare, Deep & Long (Sonntag Music)
Thanks to Lee at BBE, Toni T at Defected, Alex at Dec, Gavin at Sunburn, Lucius at The Outpost, Anton at Trailer, Ben at BKS and All at Sonntag for these…
Marc Mac Presents Visioneers – Dirty Old Hip Hop (BBE)
Cat No: BBECD/LP071. Release Date: April 2006.
Three and a half years after the first infuriatingly limited Visioneers 7” surfaced on Omniverse, the full album finally appears on BBE. Thankfully, the wonderful tracks on those rare 7’s have been included on this musically moving long player. Emotion stirring guitars, anxious strings and lovely flutes appear on the sublime cover of “Runnin’”. A bright and breezy live bass, vibraphone twinkles and neat percussion do the encouraging on “The World Is Yours”. A fine non 7” cut is “It’s Simple”, where romantic keys swoon over dreamful guitars and steady percussion. Steeped in a love of stirring jazz and paying respect to Hip Hop studio wizards, you could be forgiven for thinking Visioneers were a live entity. In reality, Visioneers is merely Marc and his mates in the studio, but if they chose to create their own live entity from this outfit, I think they’d give rather impressive performances.
V/A – Soul Heaven Presents MAW (Soul Heaven)
Cat No: SOULH03CD. Release Date: 27th March 2006.
This straightforward House compilation shows the tracks that are currently finding favour with this pair of Nu Yorican masters. Kenny’s disc ranges from huge lunged vocal cuts to tough instrumental House, whilst Louie has chosen mainly engaging vocal outings. Hot tracks from Dope’s set include Ruffneck’s wonderfully high-spirited “Baby You” and a revitalisingly keyed touch up of Trina Broussard’s ecstatic “Joy”. Louie serves up delights such as K-Dope’s attractive remix of “Holiday” from Roy Ayers and the tribal drumming frenzy of “Mafungo” from The Bayara Citizens. The final disc of this three CD set lets MAW pick out a few records that have influenced them, thus giving listeners a glimpse of Kenny and Louie’s past, as well as their present.
V/A – Shapes Compilation (Tru Thoughts)
Cat No: TRUCD101. Release Date: 27th March 2006.
Nu-Funk and Broke Jazz titans Tru Thoughts have joined up with Hip Hoppity sister imprint Zebra Traffic to release this ace comp, which features hot new material from both camps. Various musical persuasions are catered for on this swingin’ and hoppin’ CD, which has to be one of the best compilations Tru Thoughts have ever released. Quantic’s “An Announcement To Answer” gives letting off steam brass a starring role, as chunky beats and plugging away keys join in the fun. Diesler’s awesome refix of Nirobi & Barakas’ “Bungee Jump Against Racism” pits butt-moving brass against angular vocals and drums that weigh just the right amount. Diesler also gives us the impressively Housed “A Little Something”, where Laura Vane’s fear allaying vocals delight over impatient brass and keys that don’t put a foot wrong. There are only 1000 of these little beauties being pressed, so start searching now!
V/A – The Golden Singles (Sunburn)
Cat No: SPF19014. Promo.
San Fran’s Sunburn imprint release records with character. Whether it’s trippy psychedelic House, indieful guitar driven breakers or electrocuted sparklers, they’ve all got that distinctive tan. Lovesky’s “Come Back To Me” as revisited by Hakan Lidbo, sees honest guitars and sparkled synths meet under pleading vocals. Boozy & Swan’s “Champagne Beat Boogie” is a gloriously drunken night on the tiles, where jiving beats, bleepy keys and inebriated vocals provides the soundtrack. Understanding plucked notelets, lovely synths and smacked beats meet on Drunken Monkey’s “Gratification”. Embrace the warmth…
Gym Class Heroes – The Papercut Chronicles (Fueled By Ramen)
Cat No: FBR072. Release Date: 13th March 2006.
Gym Class Heroes are sold as an indie-hip hop group, and this type of categorisation makes my blood run cold. However, I remembered that you should never judge a book by its cover or reject a record without first abandoning your preconceptions and giving it a proper listen. Thankfully, this earnestly vocalised album, which mixes walking pace spoken vocals with singing and faster paced verbals is really rather endearing. The youthful GCH can really play guitars too, placing appealing melodies under angst-ridden vocal lines. “Papercuts” charts the pain caused by torturous emotional attachments, with driven drums and engaging guitars backing wounded vocals. The trials and tribulations of looking for the right girl, yet not being able to find her, is the subject of the bloated bass driven “Make Out Club”. Falling down guitars and strict beats provide the backing on “Faces In The Halls”, which shows what can happen when bullying goes too far. An unexpected musical treat!
Eighteen 18 – Body Armour (Northbridge)
Cat No: NBRCD001. Release Date: 6th March 2006.
This raggedy album of Hip Hop from Eighteen 18 has multiple personalities, born from the mind of Doncaster based rapper Lexis and the beats of producer Adee. This LP is excruciating nasty, side splittingly funny and harrowingly introspective, all in the space of an hour. Alert keys hook up with vocals that are disturbing yet amusing, on “Ashtray Blues”. “Body Armour” desperately begs for a loved one to return, as dejected beats, earnest strings and a smeared flute back Lexis’ vocals. Brokenhearted vocals weave in and out of time on the slowly beaten “Ruth’s Song”. Bleak yet thought provoking.
DJ Olive – Heaps As, Live In Tasmania (The Agriculture)
Release Date: 6th March 2006.
Organic dub hop is the musical mainstay of this live CD from DJ Olive. There are supposedly sixteen separate tracks on this album, but they have all been enveloped by an intoxicating green haze and are all presented in a continuous mix. You can just about make out the swingin’ keyed groovement on the title track, “Heaps As”. A showy sax and giggle inducing whistling pop up on the section named “They Make Us All Want To Hate Each Other Don’t Do It”. Reggaetronic keys and teetering brass hook up a little later on “Snail Trails In My Arms”. A mind-expanding journey, best served late at night in a smoky room...
Machomovers – Bare, Deep & Long (Sonntag Music)
Cat No: SON203. Release Date: 24th February 2006.
Unfortunately, the majority of tracks on this double album are the kind of vacuous plodding four/four tracks that give House music, specifically ‘Deep House’, a bad name. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, as the first CD, undoubtedly the pick of the two, contains a few tracks with an excitable sparkle. The highlight is an amusing remake of Sade’s “Smooth Operator”, where giggling vibraphone keys run amok. “Laidback Whistler” is also worth a mention, pitting quirky mouth music against a groovin’ bass and ‘correct’ beats. Coffee table House anyone?
Jon Freer(jon.freer_at_gmail.com)
***Freelaunce Journalist***
Website = www.mosoul.co.uk.
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Received on 2006-02-21 16:39:25