Under The Influence

This is Kool Keith right? Or is it MF Doom? Are the same thing? Or is that Dr. Doom? I'm in confusing territory.

I like it anyhow. I like filthy low synth bass. Earth People smacks of dirty club nights.

He's gone for a whole medical theme with this one (I guess that's probably the idea with this Dr. alias). There are some wicked bit of scratching on here. A Visit To The Gynecologyst ends with a fantastic little scratch solo. The following song, Bear Witness (a rather Public Enemy like affair), has some wicked scratch work going on too for that matter.

This is the kind of hip-hop that intellectual hip-hop heads like. Crazy to think this is ten years old. The rapping is really not so different from what the likes of Murs and Atmosphere are doing these days. I'm probably still mixed up... it's probably all the same guy.

Everyone aspiring DJ should be forced to listen to The Nextmen. You get a hell of a history lesson free with every mix set. Not only that but you get great beats and some of the best party tunes around. They know how to scratching enhances the energy of the mix, instead of smothering it.

Personal Golf Instructions is broken into a series of lessons based around different aspects of golf; The Grip, The Stance, The Woods, The Irons, Chipping and Putting. The intro to each lesson is infused with cuts from a golf lesson vinyl they've dug up from somewhere.

Don't pass up an opportunity to see these two do their thing live. I've managed to see them 4-5 times now and I haven't been disappointed for a second.

These guys infuse so many different styles into their music that I've been hard pushed to figure out just how to place them. That probably goes a long way to explaining why they've never really broken the mainstream market. To be fair they've had a couple of tracks that have become DJ essentials over the years. Jungle Brother (True Blue) is in almost every DnB DJ's record bag and many consider their classic I'll House You to be the foundation of the hip-house crossover genre.

Fans of Outkast, Arrested Development and the like will find a lot to enjoy here. The rhymes are intelligent and witty. Nods to other great hip-hop/pop works pervade many of the songs making it great for all the trainspotters. Thankfully The J. Beez don't suffer from the self-indulgent skit syndrome that other artists allow to destroy their work (there's only a single skit on the album and it's more of an introduction than anything).

Love & Hate is particularly interesting, sounding more like electro/disco club than hip-hop.

There's only one reason why I purchased this track - Disco D. Not that there's anything wrong with 50 Cent... I just avoid him to avoid the hype machine. When 50's first hit single (In Da Club) dropped all those years back I was very impressed. It had all the hit elements... and then it was played - over and over again. So I stopped paying attention.

Ski Mask Way has given me a reason to take another look at what he's doing. I'm really not sure what his message is here. Is he being ironic? More likely he's just disgorging that same old rhetoric that rappers these days seem condemned to belch forth and it's Disco D's production that makes the work touching.

What a goddamn shame it was for D to end his life a couple of months ago. That kid was fresh, original, creative and inspired (to say the least). I've got an idea. Let's lock up everyone who shows any semblance of talent the day they turn 27, we'll let them out again once they hit 28.

R.I.P. Disco D

Ha! Two years ago when I was banging on about Mark Ronson you didn't want to know. Even at the tail end of last summer I struggled to drag people in to his tent at LoveBox (AKA the Sweatbox - a title well earned), though those who were there were treated to a nice sneak preview of Version. See? See what's happened now? Now he's lined up to be the DJ act of the upcoming UK summer.

This is the point where I'm meant to go, "his new album isn't as good as his first one". Sorry to disappoint but I'm not going to. His new album is a fine piece of work. Covers, all endorsed by the original artists. That's like musical heaven to me.

It's pretty typical Ronson styling. Each track is treated to funky rehashing, dowsed in horns and left out in the sun to spontaneously combust. The opener 'God Put A Smile Upon Your Face' being a prefect example of just that process done right.

As expected he draws on a great range of sources for the original material. The one that gets me is Amy, a track from Ryan Adam's criminally underrated debut, Heartbreaker. Even the Ronson cover risks drawing a tear from my eye.