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Album Review - Belles in Monica website - September 2003 Various Artists - Bassments of Badmen Vol. 2 [Hand Solo Records/urbnet records] as reviewed by URBANELITE  In the spirit of this Canadian Underground Compilation album, let's break with convention and summarise it in advance. We've heard this described as "experimental" & "avant-garde" and various other terms which suggest little real thought's been put into it. At a time where puttin together a basic boom-bap beat suggests "genius" and where polished production is given preference to content by the likes of radio and mtv, we should be thankful for artists like the many appearing on this cd. And it's not difficult to understand what they're doing. The MCs all have imaginative, intelligent and sometimes humourous lyrics, and the flow styles would rip apart any standard hiphop beat. The difference really lies with the kinda beats the producers are using. There is clearly an influence from the drum n bass scene, though no beat could be described as outright jungle. There are also influences from guitar based "indie" music-some trax could be the backdrop to an indie song-and others are more recognisable as hiphop beats. Where a lot of hiphop is really stripped down to the basics in terms of instrumentation, this kinda goes the other way with a selection of electronic sounds, use of various international ethnic instruments, and the arrangements are often more akin to "song-based" material than what we're used to. So it's eclectic, but there's a consistency as this is the common approach taken by all the artists involved. In other words, the Canadian underground have created their own sound which it's up to us to hook into, rather than the other way round. Though 20 tracks are listed, there are 21 which lasts around 75 minutes. It kicks off with ENTER THE BASSMENT featuring Fact & The Verbals which is a hybrid of head noddin hiphop and D&b with clever use of bass, kit sample, percussion and cuttin. The flow style flips from tongue trippin in your face lyrics to a kinda spoken word style. BURY THE BODIES follows, again a standard hiphop/d&b hybrid, enhanced by the excellent flows from Fritz tha Cat, Mindbender & Vangel with an "off kilter" feel with the use of string stabs and heavy deep synth bass line. CITIZENS ARE GIFTED is a mellow, laid back track with a nice light skippin beat and complimentary Jaco bass line and haunting echoey piano line. There's a nice contrast over this when Ill Seer takes to the mic with his angry spittin deliveries, while Epic and AME109 perform in easy rhymes and spoken word. Thesis takes to the mic on TEEN IDOLS which has got a nice mid tempo funky drum loop, again contrasted by a smooth continuous bass line and sound effects. Thesis' flow style is one which follows the drum pattern closely, but occassionally he throws in a few triplets for good effect. FLASH FORWARD featuring Toolshed is an uptempo lo-fi affair, while OBLIVION featuring Conspiracy is a heavily reverbed downbeat & intense track. In fact, it is not until we reach 7th track THE PROSECUTION RESTS with The IF? do we have a sound which would be "expected" to be found on a hiphop album. A catchy funked up "on the one" bass and kit hook is still given some Canadian u/g treatment with mega reverbed vocals, sound effects and an eastern sounding trumpet line. And so this general "approach" continues with further contributions from The Tooning Spork, Exempt Specimenz, Restiform Bodies, Creature Box, Spiritual Juice, Selfhelp and many more. At times the production conjures up memories of Vega's Suicide, but there are so many influences it cannot be pigeon-holed, though as it's consistent, anything that sounds like this in the future will no doubt get compared to the Canadian Underground to save ink! The icing on the cake is that given everything that's on the album, it breaks from its own formula with the inclusion of SJ The Wordburglar's WORDBURGLAR which is one of the funkiest damn tracks you'll hear anywhere, similar to Puff Drippy's (or whateva he calls himself these days) Bad Boys For Life. With the skills and imagination on display here, you can't help feel that it's gonna break out one way or another to a wider domain, and now's the time to tune in and burn out. | ||||||
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