Beastie Boys Mix Up

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A lot of controversy has surrounded this album with a lot of people saying even before they’ve listened to it that “a Beastie Boys instrumental album is doomed to failure.” If you are one of these people then I suggest you pick up a copy and reconsider. To be fair, this isn’t actually new territory for the Boys as long time fans will know that they have dabbled with a few instrumental tracks on Ill Communication and Check Your Head and a large portion of the tracks on The In Sound From Way Out! So to say that this is a bad new move on their part would be naive and after three decades of rocking hard and shouting even harder maybe making this album was their idea of trying to stay fresh. What makes this album truly different is the number of different influences added in here, I see similarities with De Facto who tried the dub/salsa/hip-hop mix with Megaton Shotblast in 2001 and like that, this album is a good example of what people can achieve when they try something out...

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A largely mediocre album with a few above-average tracks but only one stand-out.

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I don’t know about you but nowadays the first thing that jumps into my head when I hear people talk about hip-hop is the mainstream ‘Bling, Bling’, Gangsta ‘corporate’ rap imagery. To tell the truth I don't mind the music that’s churned out, but I wouldn’t call it a favourite genre. So when Dälek (pronounced Dialect) landed on the desk I can’t say I was overjoyed … but then I wasn’t dreading it either. Let’s get something straight right from the start. Dälek isn’t bling bling, gangsta corporate rap – it’s nothing like that at all. These guys are not formulaic tune churners and by God am I happy about that. Absence is refreshing, rhythmic and trance like. There’s a fleeting similarity with the Judgement Night soundtrack in the merger of industrial/rock/rap feel this has. I can’t help rocking and swaying while listening. It’s an involuntary motion, carrying you along with the industrial/trance background and haunting samples, almost like Ministry done by rappers. There’s no...

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i-tunes was trying to convince me this is a metal band from Norway, unlike the 'upbeat jazzy' summer pop this really is. Still, in the interests of fairness, I had a listen to the Absolute Steel track i was being tempted with and this is definately better. It a cover by the singer from Curiosity Killed the Cat, of a song by Curiosity Killed the Cat. Name and Number has also been used by De La Soul, amongst others in the years since it's original release in 1987. That's one way to ensure you earn royalties. It has been remixed by Element, an entity that has produced remixes for the likes of Usher and others. This is a chorus driven mix with some strong funk underpinning and a great brass riff. All in all a cheeky little summer dance number. The video is also available for download onto your mobile phone and the single is released on August 7th.

Two contrasting takes on modern UK hip-hop.

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In a battle between awful, terrible novelty hip-hop and geniously lyrical hip-hop satire let's not take bets on which of these two currently insider tipped tracks I'm going to prefer. BiggYbigg - It's Bigger Than You Think On no, please gods no. It's an inuendo ridden summer novelty song being given radio play by Howard Stern. These things should really be banned by Act Of Parliament (Tone Loc being given special exemption status). Hopefully uncounted downloads will keep this forever out of the charts and off UK radio because if it gets any exposure the sun-addled UK record buying public will snap it up with cries of "it's not shite, it's funny & catchy and I like it". Pity the fools and remember kids, too much sun is bad for you, under no circumstances purchase music while under the influence of it.

Not a demo, an album

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Thankfully not just another So Solid Crew, Sway might incorporate the same elements of rapid fire raps and skittering beats but his debut album is a cut above the modern British talent. Already hailed by the MOBOs at the Best Hip Hop artist, but who here gives a shit about that, This Is My Demo follows on from underground cds that paved his way. This Is My Demo is a mixture of laid back almost scat rap at times, Products and more dirty squalid stories pieces such as Pretty Ugly Husband, complete with almost Public Enemy noise backing. The album is well structured, offering both the subtle and hard end of urban music, sometimes in the same track. A promising debut, This Is My Demo for me anyway is a welcome change from Deep Elm records but is possibly of little interest to the hip hop expert, which I am not.

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I’ve been mulling this over for a while now. Whenever I get asked what I play, I tend to say “Turntables”, as this is where most of my music making goes on, whereas it used to be the guitar. This answer is generally followed by “Oh right, do you not play guitar or anything like that?”, implying that while I may call myself a musician, I don’t really play an instrument. I can never be bothered arguing my case, so I generally say “I play a bit of guitar and stuff” and leave it that. I do consider a set of decks to be legimitate musical instrument, and turntablism to be an artform in itself. The first known use of turntables in the actual music making process (as opposed to the sound reproduction process) was in the 1940s by ‘musique concrete’ composers such as John Cage. Admittedly, the sounds and techniques used were extremely different to hip hop orientated turntablism, which developed independently. It was still an early indication that turntables could be utilised in such...

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I have never been interested in Reggae. Never. But when I heard the title track to Damian Marley’s (youngest son of Bob) new album ‘Welcome To Jamrock’ I was instantly intrigued. The title track itself is a somewhat shocking insight into both the Jamaican crime culture and (in his opinion anyway) the sheer amount of inequality that exists there. You’re immediately drawn to listen to the whole song from the second you hear the opening line – ‘Out in the streets, they call it murder’. So, naturally, I bought the new album. Now, I’m not going to pretend that I’ve been ‘down’ with Damian ‘Jnr Gong’ Marley from the beginning, and I’m not going to pretend that I was a fan of his father – far from it, but this album really makes me listen. It contains such a hybrid of different styles of music that it will be enjoyed, if not loved, by fans of many different types of genre, including reggae, rap, hip hop, swing, funk and even dancehall (Specifically on ‘Hey Girl’). Furthermore, this...

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Decrying hip hop's more self-obsessed, corporate, "bitches n' bling" oriented side has become somewhat of an expected formality in the discussion of any Anticon release. Such is the "thinking man's rap" reputation the San Francisco based label has established for itself amongst the more discerning part of the record buying public that it's often held aloft as the antithesis of all that is wrong with hip hop. Unfortunately for the label, such comments add weight to their no doubt already heavy shoulders, and as a result each new record they drop seems like a struggle to retain their position at the vanguard of the intelligent rap movement. And as de facto leader of Anticon (it's a collective, remember) Sole is sure to feel the pressure most. Judging by this, his third solo album, Sole has little to worry about. Over an expansive 17 tracks he manages to surf across a sea of discorded beats, ranging from classic 80's scratches to tinkly piano samples to almost-improv...

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When you first hear Aesop Rock rhyme, your immediate reaction should really be ‘What is this guy actually rapping about?’. His lyrics are different, to say the least, and it’s sometimes difficult to actually hear and understand what he’s saying, and what point he’s trying to make. His new EP Fast Cars, Danger, Fire, And Knives contains an 80-page book which goes a long way to helping answer that burning question. The first 20,000 copies of his new release on Def Jux contain the quaint little book entitled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow which lays out the lyrics of his entire backlog of albums, from Float to Labor Days to his 2002 EP Daylight to his somewhat ingenious album of 2003 Bazooka Tooth. This book finally allows us to see, for the first time, Aesop Rock’s lyrical ability actually published, and all it takes is one random scan through the book to see how groundbreakingly original, and downright weird, his lyrics can be: "Burn train buffers/My fancy/Up jumps the...