Sunday 6 January 2013

50: The Sindecut - Changing The Scenery

1990, Virgin Records

The Sindecut were a 6 person crew: Crazy Noddy, DJ Fingers, Louise Francis, Lyn E Lyn, Don't Ramp and Spikey Tee. This is their only album, though they did a few 12"s prior to this. It's quintessentially the British Rap sound, and whilst not especially accomplished, it's pretty good.

The titles are great - the first track is called "Demanding Cycle - Of A Word Bound Hammerhead", Though the remaining titles are a a little simple. The rap style is generally word heavy and largely up tempo - the production style is fairly heavily Public Enemy based, but with a bit more finesse - the samples are fairly densely layered. Passtime is a typical example - the beat being centered around a light guitar strum. Where other producers would have centered the guitar, here the words and the beat drives all over the guitar.

The words come fast and furious and there's an unsurprisingly strong reggae influence - particularly on tracks like 'Won't Change'. Whilst not being particularly inventive or exciting, it is a really good record and really benefits from repeated listens. The final track, Wisdom, is a particular standout - some hokey introduction, leading to some tight drum fills and some jazz/latin fills backgrounds some tight rhyming. It seems that it came out as a b-side to a single, so that might be the optimal method for locating the track.

Love The Life is the modal track though - quite a high tempo, big reggae type sample and some solid fast rap. Really good track - there's a live version that'll end this first entry in this blog series:


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