Yes, another reviewer mentioned Jurassic 5. I can see the point. Massive Attack too.
But to be honest UK counter culture is not what I know – so the fact the I love this album so much could be a bad thing. It’s jazzy and musical, very cool and very sharp. Glitteringly inventive. It’s range is breathtaking. Reggae, hip hop, dancehall, house, rap … whatever. I can hear a generation of musical styles and shifts in what I'm sure will be a big selling, longtime summer visitor. At the heart is the West London music collective spinning around Alex Angol, Seorais Graham and Paul Mulvey. Every track jumps out as a fresh, relevant and demanding tune that you have to listen to. The list of featured vocalists, sampled tracks and other inputs is long and eclectic. Halifax born MC Usmaan, American rapper Rockwell and UK/Jamaican Ricky Rankin are some names to notice.
Whatever you want to listen to – poised, slicing rhymes; driving bass; thrilling musical flourishes; dance beats; ambient shots; R&B mournfulness; quiet reflection: you have got it. Transitions from one track to another make the variety into an adventure, not a pick 'n' mix freak show. For no sonic reason at all it evokes Sergeant Pepper in its audacious sequence of things that should never have been together, but can no longer be pulled apart. As the dark beats and digital stabs of "Searching for Mr Manuva" fade away, in slides the dub trumpet sound and urgent rap of "Original Heads", that could be the J5 reference - with name checks for Marcus Garvey and Paul McCartney (eh?). Bluesy Jamaican schmooze on "Future Blues" has Ricky Rankin in ladykilling mood (sliding cheekily from patois to mockney), followed by closing track "Late Night Skit" that just spools away in chill out electronica.
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It is surely some kind of landmark album. Ignore at your peril
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