2013: Disaster

So I did okay - I listened to a lot of British Rap. I missed a lot too - for a number of reasons. One: these records are fairly unavailable in any form, Two: I'm disorganised and Three: Life took over.

But I did okay. I got to the top ten; I got a copy of Dettwork Southeast. I could never find a copy of the Katch 22 album. And I'd had the top three for years (MC Mell'o; Hijack; London Posse). I didn't get to wax lyrical about the London Posse. Basically I don't like them that much but How's Life In London is without question, the best pop single to come out of the UK ever.

It's been a funny old year - I came here with a suitcase containing Christmas Crackers, celebrated Christmas 2 with Amy, got a new cat, rediscovered buying records, made some new friends and some really terrible beer. America's a funny place sometimes, and living here I sometimes feel like an anthropologist: This is different, that is different, Amy cringes each time I declare that I'm off to the toilet. You can really while away your time watching Americans use knives and forks.

But now I feel it's my home - that it's the place that celebrates the slightly weird aspects of my personality that always made me feel awkward back home. That I spent the majority of the year uncovering this hidden world of incredible music both made me a little homesick but it also acted as an impetus to move forwards. The Krautrock project was all about unbridled optimism for the unknown future and being prepared to live in that future whilst in the present. This project reminded me that there's still plenty to learn. That these records have gone largely unnoticed or unacknowledged is unsurprising but it's nice to come across them none the less.

And overall, the quality was fairly astonishing. There were a few clangers (probably a result of over enthusiasm at the time of writing) but 90% of the records on there were stone classics or records to become stone classics. And whilst I struggled to deal with them sometimes, they were surprisingly surprising and beautifully well formed.

So with an order of the Katch 22 record to go, I think I've done enough on this one.

But what of 2014? I've been testing CDs out on long car journeys with Amy and she practically told me to do the project that I've planned. It's not a top 50 but it's a revisiting of the entire output of a group that will take the whole year. It required a spreadsheet and three days of research to prepare. I will take a less stressful approach to this one: If I can't get it I can't get it. The main stuff should be easy to acquire.

I'm well excited.

7: Lewis Parker - Masquerades & Silhouettes

The cover's ripped off from CTI you know. This was a record I've always wanted to hear but never got round to buying. Fortunately it's on iTunes so I had a fun week listening to it.

It's a bit different y'see - none of the drum heavy stuff here, not fast rap, no public enemy samples. 8 tracks only. It's incredible - like someone hearing hip hop but seeing something more than that and pushing themselves to create something unrepeatable.

It's romantic (I stole that from HHC) without being corny. It's one of those perfect records that sounds like nothing else and exists in it's own world.

9: Caveman - Positive Reaction

Love this record. Straight up jazz influenced goodness. Solid from start to finish.

The tempo is high, the music is guitars and sax, the rhyming is light but accomplished. There's a track called Fry You Like Fish which is as awesome as it sounds. On the flip side: Hendrix blasts out and all is right with the world. It's such a great record.

10: Mark B and Blade - The Unknown

This was it. This was the 2000 record which meant that British Hip Hop was a Big Deal. I remember that they had a 5 album deal with the new Wordplay records. Blade: the British Rapper, Mark B: the British Producer. What could go wrong.

Well, nothing, but there's something not quite right about this record. The lightness and bounce in the Task Force production is gone and Mark sets his sights on a heavy Library record based voyage. It's Mark B so it's good but there's something a little plain about the beats. There are many missteps: As a double record, this would have made a fantastic single LP. Building A Rep, for example, is good but should have been left on the cutting room floor. The Unknown, on the contrary, is great - Blade pushing his agenda over UK psych cut up from Mark.

There's a track with Westwood which does nothing. There's a track with Al Tariq which is incredible. It's swings and roundabouts. Overall this record is quite tiring despite being good. I found myself skipping the dull tracks and heading for the good ones.

Mark B and Blade didn't make it. Even with an appearance (via Feeder of all terrible things) on Top of the Pops this was the only album of their 5 album deal:

11: Task Force - New Mic Order

And after the wonderment of Fleapit, something equally good but less irreverent. Task Force meets Mark B and end up with something utterly wonderful and classy.

Mark B's finest production work to my ears - each track drips with excellence. Like how everyone pulls out their best work for Illmatic - each track here is perfectly conceived.  The rhyming is excellent as well, the balance between the two being perfectly well judged.

It's on You with Skinnyman being less annoying than on his record is superb - a marching rhythm and some lovely writing. Everything is so good, the memory of those terrible records seem so distant.

I love this record.

12: Fleapit - Music From The Ditch

And finally, after a run of boring records a good one. A really good one at that. So good, I think this topples Braintax as my favourite so far.

The Welsh contingent blend together some stupid rhyming with first rate production along some vocal scratching. It's wondrous and reminds you why the best hip hop came out of the fringes rather from the capitol. Anomalous Assault is typical of the Fleapit sound - straight up Vinyl Vulture jazz production and some daft rapping.

Greyskull Takeover Bid, however, is the song I've listened to more than any other this year. Roundtable like medieval jazz goes on whilst the MC talks to all the minor characters from He-Man and leads into a song about mortgages. A few Greyskull samples top it off. It's just incredible.

It's all done in a respectable 12 tracks. And there we go: My favourite record on the list.

I'LL KEEP THE WIG ON:

13: Joe Buddha presents Klashnekoff - Lionheart: Tussle with the Beast

Wins the prize for the longest album and artist title. And it was released the year the list was written so we can forgive them for being a bit excited about it. It's not that great to be honest - very earnest but the parts don't match up very well. Klashnekoff is okay but ultimately forgettable.

Sayonara is the standout for me: nice and bumping, up tempo with some hard rhyming. The remainder I don't really want to hear again:

Here's a video to My Life:

14: Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep

Considering he didn't touch the top ten, three records in the company of Roots and I'm not sold. I like his voice and his lyrics are interesting. But there's something about the production that leaves me a little cold.

This is a good record, perhaps not the best of the three that are on the list. Typical Roots rapping over some electronica isn production. I still feel that the best things I've heard from him are the tracks on Countryman. On this record I really like The Falling which strangely sounds like a Countryman outtake, it's less forgettable than the other tracks. But otherwise, I have no inclination to seek out more.

Here's a terrible video for The Falling:

15: Skinnyman - Council Estate of Mind

This kicks of with a sample from a Tim Roth film which I've not seen but sounds like a Borstal type movie for the nineties. Roth is the troubled one who goes around the system. This film forms the basis of the album - I can probably recite the whole film after hearing this record.

This record is a weird one. Skinnyman's a good rapper, the production is pretty solid but there's something weirdly un-engaging about it and the I'm hard done to schtick becomes quite tiresome. But it's grown on me quite a bit. The key problem for me is that the tempo is generally too slow and I don't feel like there's enough variation thematically to keep the record interesting.

There are highlights: I'll be surprised has a bouncy soul sample with some nice bass and drums and it all works really well. The title track is pretty good too but these are the exceptions: it's nice but it's not quite right.

Here's the Mud Fam coming live:

27: Overlord X - Weapon is My Lyric

So according to our Overlord - it's rough in Hackney. This is another solid turn of the 90s rap effort - all public enemy lite production and solid rapping. There's a bit of Beethoven sampling, that always makes me think of a Clockwork Orange. There's some fast rap.

When he does slower raps it works a little less well - he doesn't quite have the caliber to hold up  the tempo, though the faster raps are more successful. I've listened to this record at least 10 tens but to be honest I can't quite picture it - it's good but ultimately forgettable.

Here's the Overlord Live:

26: Son Of Noise - The Mighty Son Of Noise

This one was late because I had to order it - unlike the krautrock project, a lot of these records are really hard to get. Forget about iTunes, and I don't do Spotify on principle - they're even hard to find on blogs.

Anyway I got this, and it's on Kold Sweat. It files nicely alongside golden age back pack type US stuff but with a bit more class. There's a bit of fast rap and frenetic scratching. The thing it has in common with a bunch of records on this list is that, in general and for single disc records, there's not filler. I love hip hop dearly but too often there's a bit too much free reign to do whatever. This is tight and to the point and keeps the bar raised on each track.

It gets quite difficult to talk about these records - like the krautrock project, it's surprising that I not only like 90% of the records here but something like 75% have become top listens. The quality is so high and it's easy to forget that there are bad rap records a plenty out there.

Take Keep It Goin: posse cut, the production is simple but tight - everyone comes correct and it leaps off the record player and into your head. This record is good.

Here's a freestyle:

19: Katch 22 - Diary Of A Black Man Living In The Land Of The Lost

And now of course I am horrendously behind. Not in listening but finding the time to write things up is difficult. But as work winds down before Christmas I have a little more time and perspective on this project.

So Katch 22. A Kold Sweat group - the distinctive green labelled hip hop label. And with that title, and that cover you just now that this is going to be a goodie. And indeed it delivers: Like a good strand of british rap, the production is public enemy lite. Katch Mission builds on a bomb alert james brown type sample that the Bomb Squad would use as a base layer - here it's relatively sparse but still powerful. The rapping is tight and to the point. Another common thread is the fast rap track: here Service with a Smile races along with a ton of whoop scratching.

And it carries on that high level - solid rapping, solid production and good djing. It's a great great record.

Couldn't find a live version so here's Katch Mission: