aspects - mystery theatre?
opening with a coldcut style 1950 american advert advising how this second artist album on antidote (the first being prince pauls excellent 'politics of the business') has been 'in the making for a year' the beat drops into a cowboy movie style sampled based backing, with the west country gang implying how this is their year. well, they best crack on as tis july already! as it is, the track is very radio friendly. very catchy, and, very good at setting the scene for the next 45 minutes. following this opening shot is a very cool laid back summer anthem with its lovely sweet melodies looping harmonies declaring 'i'm so tired of working i'm going surfin' provided by band of the moment the bees adding an element of gorgeous pop bliss, and when the sun shines this just feels timeless. expect radio saturation if this is given its justified single release.
the rest of the lp follows on nicely, the vibes are predominantly upbeat and fun sounding, although sometimes stepping into weird surreal-ness, with the main example being 'man under the sea' with its merman story set to a dark acoustic guitar and echoed vocal backing. throughout the album the lyrical content is easy to follow and shows subtle twists of humour, uk references fly out en masse, 'way back' rejects the backpacker tags that have been directed towards the lads, as well as dropping in second rate tv presenters, trinny and Susannah, into the vocal reference points - i await the payback from the fashionista duo with keen anticipation.
sometimes it is obvious that the band have had some issues in recent times with their vocal digs towards the industry (we'll assume it's the music industry), but, despite this journey into the darker areas of the bands mindset this is not a hard album to love as the song based backing counteracts the worldly depth within.
the beats and samples are fresh and original, being mainly made up of choice unrecognisable samples, with the odd detour into electro (the lovingly titled 'stinkbomb'). though the human beatbox sections (especially 'chase the devil'), was a style of hip hop that i never enjoyed back in the 80's and still don't all these years later. fortunately though, these distractions are relatively few. the other album highlight has to be 'soul sister' featuring little barrie. with its full on classic prince era funkiness and headphone addictive chorus.
"yeah yeah yeah" indeed.
adding the reggae stylings of 'self help song', sidestepping the dark-n-moody dj shadow style drum loop and weird sonics of 'droppin' drums' and chilling to the wonderful ian brown-esque baggy groove of 'city limits' (despite the shock appearance of pan pipes samples!) we have an album of many pleasures, dark and light, funny and serious being weighed up in radio friendly bite sized quantities for anyone interested in the current state of uk hip hop.
so roll up folks, and get your front row tickets now.
you wont be disappointed.