Aspects - Mystery Theatre? album review

Aspects
Mystery Theatre?
My rating: 8 / 10
Top tracks: Impact, Off the lip (feat. The Bees), Stinkbomb
Similar artists: Abdominal, The Streets, DJ Format

The UK's Brighton is about the last place on Earth that I'd expect a hip-hop album to emerge from, but lo-and-behold here we have Aspects' "Mystery Theatre?"; the second release from this UK quintet (I have "Correct English" on order at the moment).

This is a good old nod to the classic b-boy, hip-hop sound before it got hijacked by egotistical 'rude boys', 'gangstas (sorry, G's)' and everyone else who decided to take the gloriousness of Sugarhill Gang and Run DMC and turn all but hardcore wannabes off.

You'll find no nonsense here. Just good tunes, good lyrics (albeit that they are UK-focussed, which is fine for a Brit like me but makes their expansion tricky), and a healthy variation of delivery and track style. Aspects manage to deviate between old-skool (sorry, couldn't resist :) ) a cappella tracks with human beatbox, to sampled, multi-layered tracks such as "Off the lip" and "Self help song".

This variation on each and every track means that it never gets dull (a problem I often find with lyrically-driven music such as hip-hop or rap) and I do find myself listening to the album, then just hitting 'play' again. It's got a very good feeling about it - it's not aggressive, but neither is it soft. A number of the tracks have real meaning for these guys: "Off the lip" is easy for me to relate to - the temptation to jack it all in, quit your job and just spend your days surfing, "My world" covers the fact that "Outside Soho, the world's not that way" - a good reminder (especially for me) that the world does not revolve around London and 'the city'.

If you've ever liked anything by The Streets (I can only take him in small doses) then you'll like this. Granted, the lyrics are not as close to the bone (few other artists are) but it's much easier to listen to a whole album of Aspects.

 Aspects - Impact

 Aspects - Off the lip (feat. The Bees)

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The Black Keys - Magic Potion album review

So, I'm thinking that this blog is likely to become primarily focussed on music, since it's what I spend most of my money & time on (except for work and drinking at The Cod of course :) ). I've got a heap of new albums and, with the help of www.filexoom.com it looks like I'll be able to host a sample track from each of the albums as I write about them. W00t!

So, without further ado, and in no particular order (other than the order they're piled up in on my desk), here goes:

The Black Keys
Magic Potion
My rating: 9 / 10
Top tracks: The Flame, Goodbye Babylon
Similar artists: Jimi Hendrix, Junior Kimbrough

Dan and Patrick are back with a foot-tapping corker of an album, following on nicely from the excellent Rubber Factory. There's been a change of record label this time around though, from Fat Possum to Nonesuch and the change has brought a slight shift in their sound too.

Magic Potion has a more polished and produced sound to it. There's an evolution to their sound; Dan's gruff, gritty voice has been ever so slightly smoothed out - like whisky-infused honey and both his guitar, and Patrick's drums have a fuller sound to them. This is even more obvious when you compare tracks such as "Your Touch" (one of the louder tracks on the album) with earlier recorded tracks such as "Countdown" from their first album The Big Come Up.

The result is an album that is more likely to appeal to a broader audience, which can only be a good thing. I've personally been on a crusade to get these boys playing in the eardrums of everyone in the UK that I know (and has good music tastes. Pop-afficiendos need not apply). But, with a release such as this, and their recent spot as the background music on a new Sony Ericsson TV ad hopefully my job will get easier. These guys really are one to watch (listen to?) and they've simply not put a foot wrong with me on any of their 5 major releases and 2 gigs I've attended.

A colleague from a previous job turned me on to them, and his only criticism was that he wished they'd get a bassist (it's just 2 guys now, Patrick on drums, Dan on guitar and vocals). I can see his point, and I'd be curious to hear it, but for now they seem to be doing just fine without :)

 The Black Keys - Your Touch

 The Black Keys - Goodbye Babylon

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