more fire crew - c.v
listening to this has been like learning a new language - alien at first, then slowly the wonders within are revealed. ending up with a new found joy. it just took a bit more effort than normal to get it.
uk garage, scattershot rhythms, minimal instrumentation, fast raps, disjointed beats, little melody, heavily urban, rough feel. only experience of this genre i had previously heard was of course, so solid crew, but we wont go there, this feels far more intimidating, fluid. these guys are not going to become a romeo for 2003 ..
opening track is actually a pretty decent hip-hop joint that would make any dr dre fan actually check the production credits on this, but this is a misleading track stylewise.
next comes more fires anthem 'oi!' - fast london accents to a mad barking synth bassline with fast furious beats, dunno why but something after the 4th play really clicked and i found this a very enjoyable track. now i hear that crack village are covering this in their live sets. ouch.
still the rest wasn't quite as easy.
originally i was too concerned about trying to understand the raps. once i gave up trying and just listened i realised that the backing tracks are actually an old friend of mine that i haven't heard from in years.
heavy minimal detroit techno.
many of the tracks sound like something that 'a guy called gerald' used to hide on his b-sides.deep, dark basslines over thin beats, little else.
raw.
once i realised that more fire crew were reviving this style and mixing it with 1988 acid house bleeps i really started to enjoy it.
highlight has to be the opening of 'insecurity' a melodic female vocal loop over a total old school techno joint, which after one minute then lets rip with the usual speed rap. superb.
several other tracks that really stand out -'over now','lock down' both of which have some of the freakiest synth lines ever commited to shiny silver discs,
'still the same' with its snatched/found voices over acid clicks, no melody just weirdness abounds, and a great stop/start uptempo beat making this a track that grooves,
'never trust' with its intense atmosphere, slow vocal lines (no speed raps here - urban thug/gangsta rapstyle with some nasty violence thrown in), 'haters' with its actual chorus/melody could easily become a crossover track and pull in many listeners, as could closer 'soldiers fallen' with its almost smooth r-n-b vibe, very much a wolf in sheeps clothing, be careful.
sitting through the whole 67 mins in one sitting can get a little heavy going as there is little respite from the intense negativity in the lyrics, and virtually nothing in the way of a tune. meaning, several tracks just don't sit well ('denial','politics' to name a couple), but over the length this is only to be expected.
something tells me that this is going to knock some bassbins for six in certain urbanised areas of london,leeds,manchester etc etc
stand well back and pray that the fire fighters strike is well over when this hits the streets.