A little on the late side with this one - Brotherhood, it seems, were going places in 1996. Some indie efforts, then signed to a major, shot some fancy black and white videos, and put out this record. They were on the brink of breaking through and then.....the inevitable.
There's a vitriolic piece on the web somewhere about how the music press didn't understand them and compared them to Public Enemy and Cypress Hill. Which is unsurprising by they do offer up a really interesting blend of US and UK hip hop.
At some point during my disastrous tenure as a Lecturer I started a habit of listening to a particular record at the start of Friday afternoon. I started with the first Black Sabbath album, the sign of Sabbath o'clock indicating that the week of hell was almost over and the delights of the weekend were fast approaching. When I first came to California I did the same, but I chose to listen to Between a Rock and a Hard place to bring in the weekend - the change from Heavy Metal to tight indie hip hop representing my change in mood. The Brotherhood record brought all those memories flooding back.
This is a fantastic record, the kind of record that you're embarrassed to arrive to late. The production is slightly up tempo, drums are heavy and unrelenting. The rapping is spot on, mixing that laid back kind of sound of Artifacts or Black Moon into snatches of English - "I am Remington but I don't carry no Steel". It's incredibly polished - like a perfect gem, and well rounded. It's not too long and the production varies enough to stop it from feeling tired.
Alphabetical Response is the stand out track - bleepy bloops from the Radiophonic Workshop (maybe), leading into those drums and they've got you in their sights. The chorus : "We'll flip one to your bonce, alphabetical response!". It's wonderful.
It's early days on this one, but I think it might oust Braintax from the top spot. And to prove it, here's that arty black and white video for alphabetical response:
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