49: Cookie Crew - Born This Way

This took two weeks to arrive, hence the delay and the lesson to be learned about US post and the problems of doing a UK centric music blog in California. Prior to this I vaguely knew about the Cookie Crew, but some brief mentions on Twitter brought out a whole lot of CC love - the ever knowledgable Ben Hatton described it as "One of the best UK rap LP".

High praise indeed but it's easy to see why - an onslaught of sass, tight rhyming and killer production. Remedee and Susie Q have the voice, flow and beats and they're all on display throughout. There's a lot to like here and, like all great records, it doesn't outstay it's welcome and each track delivers a little more. We had a bit of a chuckle at some of the titles, but even Amy's a convert to the Cookie Crew style.

It's a blissful visit to 1989, with classic samples that are reverently treated - Tramp, Superfly etc. and for the time the scratching is top notch also. For me the standout is Places and Spaces For Your Mind - A beautiful Donald Byrd background, to some spoken/rap style - it's just really great. Unlike the other albums I've heard so far, this made sense straight away. They made a second LP with some tracks done by Black Sheep, and there's a bit of the light touch of daisy age rap but it's got a strong UK thread running through it.

There's also something to be said for rap duos who rap mostly together (dropping in and out) rather than taking turns and these two are some of the best - sounding effortless for them. So there we go - a definite winner, well worth the wait and a early contender for best of the blog. And to set it off here's the Cookie Crew doing the title track live on Top of the Pops and absolutely killing it:

48: New Flesh - Understanding

Hmmm - this was one of my worries about this list. You see - it's a bit early noughties if you know what I mean. The cover screams it out loud. My fears were set to maximum. Now, I realise that I am somewhat out of sequence, but the time lag in acquiring the 49th record meant that it arrived a week late, and I think it deserves at least a week of listening to do it justice. So at number 48 is this lot. Discogs says that they made one more album in 2006, but this one comes from 2002. So new are they that they don't even warrant an entry in the excellent Heroes of UK Hip Hop.

I first listened to this one on my inaugural run around the lovely Lake Merrit in Oakland taking in the homeless and the bird sanctuary. You can tell it's from the noughties as it has a "bonus track" basically on the iTunes version this manifests as a track with 4 minutes of silence making me think I'd downloaded it incorrectly mid run. My fears were raised with this one: no samples. I'm a frightful idiot when it comes to hip hop and no samples worries me greatly - and this melange of lightweight bleeps and beats made me panic a little.

But, in reality, and giving this a good week of listening I was totally wrong. This is a really great record with lots going for it and reinforces the idea that going through this list was a good idea. It wears it's age on it's sleeve but it does what it does beautifully.

More Fire is characteristic of the New Flesh sound - a stuttering minimal beat, with ragga rapping over the top - lot's of vocal layering. Normally I don't like this kind of thing, it not ticking the right boxes for me, but something about the interplay of the MCs and the boldness of the production makes it work. Some of the other tracks are more straightforward rapping, and the high number of guests keeps the rapping from becoming stale. Real Child Soldier is great, mellow and the rapper sounds like someone on the Fingerprints of the Gods (far away but upcoming I'm sure). One track features Gift of Gab, an MC so characteristic it's difficult to picture this as not a blackalicious track. Throughout, despite being minimal the production is pretty varied.

Two tracks feature Ramm:Ell:Zee - at first these are the most annoying things, him basically saying words over the beat. But over time they ground me down and I now think they're really good. Ty shows up on the last track and does his usual greatness.

So, overall, this is a really good record - of it's time but interesting and varied enough to keep things moving. In keeping with the tradition of including youtube videos I tried to find some of them live but to no avail. So here's a pretty cheap video for Stick and Move. Starting to think this is going to be the best project I've ever done.

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:

50 Top British Rap Albums

So this is the new project for 2013. I bought this magazine when it came out, I probably checked the list (or the top of the list at least) to assess it's quality.

So 50 British Rap Albums. Britain has always had a bit of an odd relationship with it's rap past - a little bit of British Embarrassment really. Despite producing some world class and really interesting rap records, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, as a nation, we don't have any kind of history or that British Rap music starts with Roots Manuva and ends with The Streets. If I had my rant hat on, I would say that mainstream music media is currently awash with people with largely an indie background and that they generally have a snooty view of British Rap or Rap in general.

But this is Hip Hop Connection - a magazine that despite being fairly cheap in direction, was really well written and this top 50 is a gem - balanced between old and new, 90% of it unknown to me. The top 10 is an eye opener and, ashamedly, I would wager that the majority of people in the UK would be unable to name more than 2 of the records in the top 10. But this is not an attempt to address this wrong, but an attempt to improve my understanding of rap in the country of my birth. Plus, now I'm living in CA, it's going to be a project that is going to cost. With the Krautrock records, I will admit to getting digital copies of some of the records. This time, I will attempt to buy vinyl copies of each of the records here that I don't own.

So let's go. Britrap style.

Bonus #2: Niagara - The Classic German Rock Scene

So now I'm cheating a little bit but this is such a bargain that it would be a shame not to. So Niagara was a Klaus Weiss thing who's made a few libraries too. Three albums: Niagara, SUB and Afire - this record collects the first two and there's a CD you can get of them all.

The first is the infamous breasts gatefold sleeve. Two tracks, Six musicians, All percussion. Sounds either great or terrible but ends up dithering between brilliant and tiresome. Not the kind of twenty minute track to hold your attention unawavered but something you can drop in and out of as time goes on. Both tracks are pretty similar but never really get boring, despite the limited range of the instrumentation.

The real doozy though is the second disc - where the tracks are shorter and they add in bass, synths and guitars. The first tracks sounds like it came straight from a library record, all funky drums and deep guitar riffs, but unlike a library track it goes on and on and on. The record continues on in this vein - really right funky music with the right kind of embellishments. At times it sounds a bit like the Big Beat or Mustafa Ozkent but with the Kraut foundations. Bones starts with a huge drum crescendo then breaks down into a frantic afro rock style breakdown. Overall it's a bit more funky than the kraut records on the list but I think it's a bit better for it.

The Afire record continues on in this vein - not quite as complete as the first two but still pretty funky. All of these records seem to stay at the expensive end of things and so it's nice that the double album listed above exists and enables you to get the first two relatively cheaply. The full set is on iTunes also.

So that was the year of revisiting krautrock. My first year in California will be spent listening to, what else, British Rap - I can't wait!

Bonus #1: Emtidi - Saat

Emtidi are a strange one. Two records - the first one is pretty much straight up folk. The second one is an incredibly bizarrely stunning psych folk kind of affair. Like all the great kraut records it completely outside of any canon or conception. Retains a bit wash of trad folk with a whole heap of kosmiche mixed in for luck.

Six tracks - The first track on each side is a bit different. Walkin' In The Park is beautifully sung and twists and turns around. And traditional bonkers lyrics - The grass is apparently to cold for their ass. It all goes trippy at the end too. Then it's off into synth city with a bonus hippy dippy plea to be one with something. It's so stunningly beautiful that it seems just weird to work.

On the other side Love Time Rain is slightly up tempo and a bit more urgent. Then back to the hippy dippy - the male and female vocals play off of each other and swirl around. Then it all ends on a whimper which follows some crazy German singing.

It's a hard record to describe but there's something magical about the way it all works together and how the vocals and guitars and synths blend together. It carries that Kraut tradition of seemingly impossible that such a beautiful record could have been made and that it exists. A total one off, it doesn't seem that Emtidi recorded again, nor did the members do anything again. This is probably one of my tip top favourite Kraut records.

Done

So that was krautrocksampler - some of the records I knew, some I didn't but it's a really solid list and there's some great music in there. It's been a strange year and will seemingly continue to be strange for some time I think but it's been tons of fun. So what have I learnt:

1. Listening to a record is great

So spending a week really getting to know a record is great. Even if it's something you know then giving it the space to breathe is fantastic. Even better is just sitting down to listen to something. With no distractions and no other tasks, I've really felt that I've been re-energised about music through the project. Also the different contexts really seemed to capture the essence of the list. The murky start to the year with Amon Duul and Can, the futurism of Cluster and Neu whilst riding the trains around the Bay Area. I have strong memories of walking back from the pub on holiday listening to the Cosmic Jokers as the light faded and the rain came in. Though I sometimes forgot to post, it was never a chore to listen to the records.

2. Can aren't that great, Cluster are incredible

I love can but sitting down to those records reminded me why I really don't listen to them that much - apart from the first disk of Tago Mago I think I could safely live without hearing Can again. There's something very cold and calculated about them which just didn't work with me. Cluster, on the other hand, are amazing and so incredibly bold that they occasionally reduced me to tears.

3. The Ambient axis is awesome

Zeit was the real revelation for me - I always liked it, always rated it way more than the other TD records but spending a week with it just brought home how utterly perfect it is. Also the latent presence of Klaus Schulze wrought large over the last parts of the project - incredible stuff. The more ambient side of the records appealed to me a lot over the year, perhaps because they needed the time and space to explore fully.

4. I need Tarot

I must must must buy a good copy of Tarot at some point in the future. Not an original but a CD copy with the accompanying cards.

5. Gille

Gille is the best thing about the Cosmic Jokers. Now that I've covered the CJ axis in full I may go back to those compilation records and give them a re-listen. Just to check


And also - my top 5 records on the list (no particular order)

1. Tangerine Dream - Zeit
2. Cluster - Cluster 2
3. Faust - Faust Tapes
4. Walter Wegmuller - Tarot
5. Witthuser & Westrupp - Trips and Traume

And to follow: Two bonus records, which weren't on the list but are vaguely krautrock and whilst not really omissions, are awesome records.