'The Get Together' - Evil Ed & Conspicuous (album review)

At 15 tracks deep, coming in at just over 50 minutes, ‘The Get Together’ is no hard slog. I’ve already listened to it a few times today and am beginning again; it doesn’t get boring despite the outwardly conventional Hip Hop template.

Evil Ed is known for having produced for Jehst, Yungun and a whole host of other UK names. His production LP ‘The Enthusiast’ featured vocals from Kyza, the Colony, Doc Brown, Tommy Evans and Asaviour amongst others. Conspicuous (aka Conspicuous the Coroner aka Cons) a member of The Colony along with Willo Wispa, Grimlok and Sir Smurf Lil’, has previously dropped two albums, ‘Backgammon’ in ’05 and ‘The Family Photo Album’ last year.

Cons is on point with some carefully constructed verses that proudly display his rhyming ability (probably the reason why ‘81’s Favourite Son’ was sequenced first). The guests contribute only pure fire too, there are no duff appearances and no-one steals anyone else’s shine. It’s not just ‘BBQ’ that has a brotherly BBQ-ish feel; the whole album is like one relaxed cipher. Ed’s production is of a high quality, there are no hastily looped breaks here, no drums slapped on top of some old soul; this is sampling at its most professional and top that, it’ll keep your head nodding all the while.

Stand out tracks come in the form of UK/US posse cut ‘Ill-Out’ and ‘Big Headed’. The former for its jazziness, cuts, contrasting accents and sick lyrics. The latter for the pianos, Willo Wispa’s inimitable slackness and Mudmowth’s mentalness.

‘The Get Together’ serves as a great follow-up album for both artists. With a multitude of big guests, including some from over the pond, the duo has crafted a comprehensive body of work that should garner many spins by any Hip Hop head fortunate to pick up a copy of this.

'The Beast From The East' - TB (mix CD review)

For all who may have been suspicious or confused - T. Bear is TB and Tuberculosis. His new mix CD ‘Beast from the East’, mixed by DJ MK, is out now on Ottomanelf Music and this is what I think of it:

There is one thing you must do on inserting this CD into your player – turn it up. This CD does not work quietly. Despite the cuddly name, T. Bear may be one of the UK’s gulliest MCs – overall the 29 tracks are face contorting although he does take time out on some more chilled tracks. The instrumentals add their contribution to the audio assault with production from Farma G, P*Nut and Chemo as well as others.

Lyrically TB is pretty dope: ‘I imagine I’ma die like John Lennon, but believe, I’ma leave a prettier widow than Yoko Ono’, you get the impression that he’ll say anything. Flow-wise he doesn’t miss a beat, he’s tight with the snares. Tuberculosis credibly walks the Hip Hop/Grime line, ‘Bang this Out’ demonstrating his double time flow well. This CD contains concept tracks like ‘Off 2 Work’, a topic touched on by a few rappers recently but Mr. Ti2bs and TB contribute a catchy hook and some good lyrics to the collection. On the funky ‘Freestlye’ you get a glimpse of TB’s sense of humour as he sings ‘La-di-da-di-da’ – sing along.

TB must be hard working; more than an hour’s worth of music spread over 29 tracks is impressive although it’s probably best listened to in two halves. Skills and charisma are evident but I’m more a fan of proper albums, I’d like to see him focus on say, 10 tracks, that contain everything he is capable of. As it stands though, the mix CD format serves it purpose.

Get yourself a taster of this CD here.