Rhythm & Poetry » Reviews

A-Diction – Walkin’ Alone Review

Ruxton — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:23:12 +0000

A-Diction – Walkin’ Alone is the sophomore release from Breach & Boltz, coming in at 15 tracks. In my opinion you can expect an album that has a little bit of something for everybody. If you’re interested, Walkin' Alone is available on iTunes now.

A-Diction – Walkin’ Alone

Reviewer: Ruxton – August 23rd, 2010

Breach & Boltz first released under A-Diction back in 2005 with their debut EP, To Be Announced. In what i’ve calculated as 2006 they started working on this album, Walkin’ Alone. Back then it probably had an obscure working title; now the title is settled upon and thrown up in big letters on the front of the CD cover, which features some excellent artwork by R. Lyons.

A-Diction - Walkin' Alone

During all of that, Boltz managed to squeeze out a solo album titled The Wishlist, which was nothing to be sneezed at. A few ‘mixtapes’ (The Three Year Itch and In Good Company) were also had along the way, but the gold of the duos crop was being put aside and it features here on Walkin’ Alone.

I like to read album notes, do you? They’re always a fun affair, so to quote the album notes “yes, it’s too bright but the bottom of the snare sounds ok!”. To explain in more detail, listening through the album at around track 4 I started thinking quite a few tracks were just a little too sharp or bright, by track 6 I was reading the album notes and read that quote; I couldn’t have agreed more.

The intro to the CD I’d personally have not bothered with. It’s a beat by Whisper and I get the feeling it was a weaker beat that was either thrown together quickly or picked up from the trash pile of “not sure what to do with”. It basically consisted of what I describe as flat singing on a beat that didn’t suit anyone on it.

After the 3 minutes and 5 seconds of dissapointment the Intro brought my life, I was invited to take a walk. Walkin’ Alone is a beat by Lewis One, featuring Juice of Battlehoggs on the cuts. A hot beat, diced with raps about raps that all just works. With the chorus constantly hitting the line “lets take a walk” it really feels like this should’ve been the intro, inviting us into their world.

There’s a lot of listenable stuff for a while, but it’s all just raps about raps. M-Phazes comes in on One Fact with Doc Felix for cuts and it’s a nice beat, but the content on the lyrics doesn’t win gold stars. It’s not until about Wingman that we start to see actual content in the lyrics of the tracks. Unfortunately the overly bright vocals in Wingman kind of ruined it.

The lads (or their promo piece of paper) have gone and recommended Drop The Beat (Remix) as a radio player. The track features G-Force and Vida Sunshyne and I can see why it’s been recommended, it’s just a nice simple track, cleanly presented with a chick-hook; suck it up radio!

We really start to hear more content now, with the lyrics of What We Do presenting the life of the MC, I guess as these guys see it. A very enjoyable track, that you should definitely listen too with a tongue in your cheek. However I’d possibly have presented the next track Ladies and Gentlemen (basically a track about having a sense of humour) before it just for the context it could give to these lyrics.

The posse cut of the album, Capital Vices comes care of M-Phazes, with cuts from Mathmatics. It features Fraksha, Billy Bunks, Scott Burns, Whisper and Raven. Loosely themed by it’s titled, each MC presents bars on vices. It’s possibly a bit too slow, as only a few MCs actually sounded good on it. Following up from this posse cut, the tail end of the album gets pretty meaningful, with Just You, Unbalanced, Lost For Words & Hold On coming together to tie up the album nicely.

Should you buy this? sure. Will you like it? more than likely! Walkin’ Alone has a track or two for everybody, it’s not all meaningful and it’s not all bravado; It’s a little from column a and a little from column b. If you enjoy listening on good headphones the bright mix is going to annoy you, but it’s fair to say most people probably aren’t even going to notice.

Rolling on 3.5 stars, let down by the lack of consistency in the overall mix. Brought to you by: Two, Five, Six and Thirteen.. recommended by the paper.

Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks – The Sound of Wings Review

Ruxton — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:22:18 +0000

Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks – The Sound of Wings is an eight track release that comes with a 6 track bonus disc (the 4th CD in the I Forget, Sorry! series). What you can expect from this album is a lighter side of hip hop beats and some topic choice per track, there’s some really nice beats in here backed by real instruments and some good lyrics too. If you want to check it out you can grab Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks - The Sound of Wings now on iTunes, otherwise check out Coptic Soldier’s website.

Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks – The Sound of Wings

Reviewer: Ruxton – May 12, 2010

Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks - The Sound Of Wings

This is Coptic Soldier‘s debut release after releasing two mixtapes over the past 3 years (False Start Mixtape in 2007 and The Past 3 Years Diary in 2009). Since False Start there has been serious growth in his work, however he’s still growing and there’s still something lacking in Coptic’s work in parts of this release.

The takes on tracks like Why Suffer & “The Last Track” (which i dare not name, as I just can’t believe it’s on the disc) present a forced flow that many have come to expect from Coptic Soldier on past releases. While tracks like Sherbrook feat. Mind Over Matter, No More Waiting feat. Phatchance and Liquid Company show the growth in Coptic Soldier‘s presentation that I was talking about earlier. A much more pronounced, defined, smooth and consistent flow that doesn’t feel forced or stiff.

All i’ve done is talk about Coptic Soldier and how he’s developed as an MC, but one thing i’ve skipped is Miriam Waks. Quite simply put, without Miriam Waks this CD just wouldn’t be the same.

Miriam Waks features on pretty much every track in some way shape or form and gets a solo in Skin Deep. Skin Deep is not exactly a hip hop track, but that’s ok because it’s a great break up song and most of the album is borderline hip hop. Lyrically you could say it’s quite generic, but as a whole it’s quite possibly one of the best songs on the album; Why it isn’t all over radio airplay i don’t know.

Miriam Waks adds more to this release than you’d expect. By about the third listen i decided to try imagine what it’d be like without all those little vocal cuts and nice singing between the raps, attempting to just block them out; the cd just wouldn’t be the same.

Sherbrook is my favourite track track off the album, featuring up and coming sydney siders Mind Over Matter. It’s just a really nice beat, backed up by clean raps; i’m not sure exactly what the theme is here though. Smiles Again & Willow from Mind Over Matter just smash out some nice raps. Mind Over Matter have been coming up slowly for quite a while now and I promise you now these guys are going to be something.

Presentation wise, this is a pretty slick package. I’ve come to expect this kind of stuff from the I Forget, Sorry! crew and it doesn’t feel so nice anymore. Quite simply put it’s a digipak imitator, cardboard printed, folded down and stuck together to produce CD packaging. The booklet has been stuck to the front of the inside, a minor annoyance that means you can’t just read the booklet without lugging the packaging with it. Then the CD is just stuck on the center panel with a black foam dot, the IFS #4 bonus disc slotted fairly carelessly in the right packaging fold.

The artwork is tight from front to back on this release is just awesome. The picture you can see above from the CD cover is carried through every aspect of the packaging; with the CD booklet set on clouds. I guess the packaging is presented well it’s just the few minor things mentioned above that let it down.

All up this is a nice release, if you wanna check it out you can grab Coptic Soldier & Miriam Waks - The Sound of Wings now on iTunes. I wouldn’t go recommend it to staunch hip hop heads, but plenty of people are really going to enjoy some of this CD, just not Phil Collins. Oh, why do rappers always try and sing?

Rating: 3.0 stars

Fluent Form Interview & The Furnace Review @ All Aussie

Ruxton — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:08:04 +0000

The guys over at All Aussie Hip Hop Blog have caught up with Melbourne’s Fluent Form for a quick interview on all things past and present, along with tackling a glowing review of The Furnace. Head over to All Aussie Hip Hop Blog and get yourself a taste of the interview with Fluent Form or the review of The Furnace.

Fluent’s confidence has grown in leaps and bounds since debuting Chapters Of Substance. This time Fluent has pushed his mic skills even further. His complex rhyming structure, deep concepts, and overall flow are orchestrated faultlessly with the guys handling production.

Fluent on the Crate Cartel overall vision:

Just doing music we like. Music we know is dope. We’ve got a very strong work ethic and I think that helps us stay consistent.

As always Fluent Form-The Furnace is available via iTunes, so get in there and grab it.

M-Phazes Good Gracious Interviews/Reviews

Ruxton — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:01:30 +0000

M-Phazes has released an awesome CD in Good Gracious and many people have caught up with him or given it a review over the past few weeks. Below you’ll find links to interviews with M-Phazes and reviews of Good Gracious. I’d also like to extend a big congratulations to M-Phazes for holding firm at #1 on the itunes hip-hop charts here in Australia.

If you haven't caught Good Gracious head to iTunes now and grab a copy, you’ll be treated to a bonus track featuring Haunts from Choose Mics.

Richard Kingsmill from Triple J catches up with M-Phazes for a quick interview, you can catch the interview embedded below.

If you find any others, feel free to link below in the comments.

Phatchance – Inkstains

Ruxton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:54:43 +0000

Sydney artist Phatchance is set to drop his debut album Inkstains next Friday, the 20th of November, Chance contacted me and eventually after a discussion it was decided he’d send me a copy of Inkstains to listen too and i’d give him my thoughts and some promo via this blog (it really is that easy). I’ll be clear though, i’m not bought these are my thoughts un-edited, un-compromised.

I’ve been following what i now like to call the “ex-Nurcha” crew for a while, buying their CD’s and listening to their work and watched as they did their own thing in a land full of BBQ’s & Beer, Politics and Graffiti taking knowledge in the fact that this is fundamental hip hop, people speaking their mind. Let’s be clear, Australian Hip hop isn’t “skip hop” (sorry guys) anymore, theres an artist for everybody’s tastes. Sometimes you don’t agree with that artists view, but that’s fine it doesn’t mean they’re any less an artist, you can still appreciate their work.

Phatchance is the side of Australian Hip Hop we’re yet to see take hold and I guess we’re about to see how it takes and i couldn’t predict it if I tried. Inkstains is a good album, but I wont be telling any stereo typical hip-hop heads to listen to it, because most of you are too closed minded to give it a chance. If you think you can open yourself up to someone elses introspection and emotion at any cost, then this album is for you. The album was approached conceptually “in essence Inkstains, both as a title and a release is trying to convey the mark that writing has made on my life” (Interview @ Certified Scribe). However it’s really just a young MC’s solo debut album, so allow him to get introspective and take you on an emotional journey while dealing with some personal issues and you’ll enjoy this album.

Tracks like Inkstains show you the Phatchance has the ability to write hits with the best of them, this will be the track you’re waving nodding your head to, no doubt. Other tracks on the album will strike emotional chords, others will just take you on a journey through a time in a young mans life and it’s all done well, but i’m not writing home about it, it’s just a good album.

The packaging is actually killer and that’s a big thing for me because i love jewel cases and have a strong hatred for the digipak. The digipak artwork is amazing and really shows off why people continue to use the digipak over a jewel case because the artistic theme can flow the whole way through packaging.

Another cool part about this release, is it features the 3rd CD in the I Forget, Sorry! bonus cd series. This has been a bonus disc series that has featured in the most recent releases of Mind Over Matter & Coptic Soldier (more of the “ex-Nurcha” Crew). This in itself has been an interesting feature and bonus for people willing to buy the cd, containing some really great tracks.

I was going to sit here riding on how emotional this album was, but then i got another listen and started to get the point of the album and saw past the emotion. You can’t just discount this (or any other for that matter) album on 1 or 2 listens, it’s not fair to the time the artist has put into it, nor should it be judged as 1 tune or half-listened. So grab yourself a copy of Phatchance – Inkstains next week when it comes out or give it a pre-order and give it a serious listen because this lad actually has something to say, but if you’re a closed minded fool, move along… there’s nothing to see here.

In short, after the first listen i didn’t know what i was going to write about, i only liked one track, but a few more listens down and other tracks begun to grow on me. Don’t toss it aside, all i’m saying is give Phatchance a chance.

Phatchance - Inkstains

Inkstains is the debut album from Sydney emcee Phatchance, it is a cohesive, emotive and extremely personal album that promises to smash open any remnants of the perception that Australian hip-hop is a genre with a shelf life. With a progressive sound riding somewhere between iconic Australian group The Hilltop Hoods and indie rockers Death Cab For Cutie, Inkstains ventures into new waters for local hip-hop music. Earnest lyrics and melancholy production thread the album together, interspersed with the same kind of high energy numbers that have pulled the genre from relative obscurity to a mainstay of the Australian live music scene. Inkstains is packed full of production from some of the best beat smiths in the country, including Adit (Horrorshow) and Akouo. California’s DJ Hoppa (Bliss N Eso – Up Jumped the Boogie) also provides production for the album, as do locals Konfuzion, Elgen & One Above.

Inkstains Track Listing

Inkstains
I Don’t Know – Feat. Sam Mcneill
The Catchy Song – Feat. 360, Smiles Again & Joyride
Mountain Of Glass
Build It Up – Feat. Hr King
Leaving The Nest
Battlescars
Invisible Queen
Reflections – Feat. Prime
C’est La Vie
Angels In My Ears
Leaving The Nest (Band Version)

I Forget, Sorry! #3 – I Finished Something

It’s Not A Secret
Liquid Company
Angels In My Ears – Remix
Coptic Soldier Boy
My Weekend – Feat. DJ Ilz
To The Bone
Inkstains – Dub Remix

Want to learn more about Phatchance? cop this recent interview over at Certified Scribe with Phatchance.

Want to get a pre-order for Inkstains? head over to JB Hifi Online and pre-order now.

Also over at Keep Moving, they have an interview with Phatchance done in Skype, rather than transcribe they’ve just posted up screenshots of the interview, interesting tactic.

Update: You can now get Phatchance's album Inkstains digitall from iTunes.

Lazy Grey – The Soundtrack Review @ OzHipHop.com

Ruxton — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:26:35 +0000

Theres a real nice review of Lazy Grey‘s new album The Soundtrack over at OzHipHop.com, written by Gerling. The review really breaks down why I think alot of people on first listen of The Soundtrack, are going to pre-emptively toss it aside. Thats the worst thing you could ever do as Lazy Grey and Dave V definately grow on you after 2-3 listens.

So read the review here and if you haven’t bought the album yet, you can buy Lazy Greys – The Soundtrack here on iTunes or grab a cd here.

Nine High – Nine High Debut Album

Ruxton — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:59:49 +0000

You can see the Nine High lads doing there thing on RRR via YouTube here, but being over Perth, i’d not had the pleasure of hearing/seeing Nine High outside of YouTube and RRR. Sure everyones saying this Album is going to be huge, but aren’t they all saying that about their albums? Well the truth be told, Nine High’s debut album is great. It doesn’t try to be anything it’s not, the simple album artwork tells you that straight away, it’s white and pure like the hip hop running through the veins of Fraksha, Scotty Hinds & Felony.

So the story goes Nine High have been doing there thing for many years now and finally after much pressure, they created an album. Then it sat ready for quite some time, while they waited to all be in the same place at the same time to release it. Apparently during this time everyones favourite, M-Phazes (good gracious!) managed to take some of the tracks from the album, turn them on their head and shake it upside down, other noteable producer to the album are Ghost Town, Jase, Drif & Lewis One. Whatever happened over all those years, it was worth it just so this album could be born in it’s current incarnation.

Theres some hot tunes on here and i’m topping my favourites at 3 tunes to keep things under control. The first stand out track from Nine High’s debut album is without a doubt Fugs Need Hugs, to open with that such a big tunes was risky, but it fit so perfectly, so simple, yet so good. Following up with Track 2, Jokers is definitely a favourite, sampling Chris Rock and touching on the most cliche of hip hop topics “fake people”, now while it’s cliche these guys pulled it off without the usual cockiness that comes with such a track. That leaves us with #3 and as easy as it’d be to just go in for Track 3 What You In It For? (another top track with a cliched topic choice), i’m going with Track 7 Bait. Once again the simple beat wins, the lyrics here are awesome though, basically it describes that person we all know and their words describe it best, “everybody does illegal things you make it obvious”. Finally if I was touching out to a #4 i’d go for What Bothers Me, this track deserves a mention for its lyrical content.

Head over to iTunes and grab Nine High now, or head over to MySpace, get aquainted with some tracks off the album and go order it from your favourite independant.

Delta – The Second Story Review @ RapReviews.com

Ruxton — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:37:12 +0000

Guido Stern has posted a good review of Delta’s new album, The Second Story over to rapreviews.com. Head over and have a read of the review.

While unbeknown to most American hip hop fans, Delta is perhaps the most revered up-and-coming Australian rapper or as Vibe Magazine bluntly puts it, “the only MC Down Under worth mentioning.” A sort of backhanded compliment, but strong praise nonetheless.

Don’t forget you can pickup Delta’s The Second Story over at our favourite online store Clinic 116 or digitally via iTunes.

Brad Strut – Fallout Shelter Review @ Certified Scribe

Ruxton — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:25:34 +0000

Cameron over at Certified Scribe has posted a short review of Brad Strut’s new release Fallout Shelter. Going so far as to say “Fallout Shelter’s value is compounded” is no lie, picking it up from JBHifi on pre-order lands you Fallout Shelter EP, Rejuvenation LP, Children of The Damned – Just Drink EP and a 7″ Children of The Damned vinyl release.

Brad Strut -Fallout Shelter

Butcha’s stone cold effort on Blastin ‘Em is reminiscent of Trem’s haunting soundscapes with Lyrical Commission. It is an ideal musical foundation over which Strut’s verses illuminate paranoid schizophrenic recounts of catastrophic experiences.

Headover to Certified Scribe and checkout the review and don’t forget you can order Fallout Shelter which is due out tomorrow from JBHifi.

Update: You can now digitally grab both Fallout Shelter and Rejuvenation at iTunes.

Geko – The Crate Cartel Review @ RapReviews.com

Ruxton — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:10:16 +0000

Over at RapReviews.com Emilee Woods has written a real nice review of Geko‘s recent album The Crate Cartel. Paying respect to yet another fine MC from Melbourne Emilee’s review gives a light overview of the album and lands it a total score of 8/10, a score i’d happilly agree with. Head over to RapReviews.com and check out the review.

Geko’s album is one that i’ve been constantly coming back and listening too often and each time i listen to it, i seem to find something new i like about it. Now i’m sure that’ll wear off soon, but it’s a testament to how good the album is. So once you’ve done listening to the review, head on over to itunes or our favourite store clinic116 and get yourself a copy.