Stacs of Stamina - Tivoli (2005)

Yo yo Bluntheads.

Now I know you fly cats have a taste for the best of hip hop's kicked rhymes, as you both seem to be indulging the flavour of the most fly deep type flow, but I'm afraid this is where I am not keeping up. I find rap music (by rappers (you know, the rap stars, you've seen them on the TV .....)) often a little dull, and hip hop beats soon get repetitive and predictable. This is not to say there is nothing worthy in the genre, like anything if one looks to the extremes there are some experimental highlights. Many of my favourite producers of recent years have a hip hop vibe and embrace the mastery of turntablism. I just don't have quite the love that you two have shown over the last few months, with so many offerings featuring some form of MCing.

I've tried to step up and represent, embrace the beat, the liver of hip hop. For Christmas I bought Dan the Shape of Broad Minds album which was described in reviews as 'future hip hop' and was stirring up opinion in crews across the land. On listening however, I believe we all found this to be yet again predictable wanna be gansta rap (AYE!). My musical quest seems to have now remedied this situation and offered up an album that seems more appropriate to be considered 'future hip hop'. Something that brings together my love for electronic music with layers of rap. An album good enough for me to embark on a further backpacker journey. All this inspiration amazingly comes from a Swedish production outfit, Stacs of Stamina.

Let's get this straight though, perhaps it is unfair for me to describe this as Hip Hop. I am loosely assigning a generic title in the hope that my brothers (literal) will see me as the player I aspire to be, you feel me? Perhaps my weak logic in connecting this album with hip hop is an honest reflection of my appreciation of the genre. None the less, I am assigning some hip hop qualities to the album, and I am sure you will see why. The music blends European rapping style with jarring electronic sounds. Points sound like a less bassy dubstep, and at many occasions the productions hold a shimmering techno value. My friends at Boomkat have adopted the name Eurocrunk for this. It's like Garage's twisted nephew rebelling against any dub heritage. The genre is 'A mixture of crazy Euro lyricism and blip-hop over snazzy syncopated beats'. I think the term blip-hop sums it up very well, and it is an avenue I will be focusing some of my research efforts in the coming weeks.

The album kicks ofF gently with an almost atmospheric electronic number. It feels like the start of a dance music record, but turns neatly towards the promised lyrical rhyme kicking. The album features some elements of Scandinavian rock, with the vocals having affinities with the Norwegian genre mixing brilliance of Manes. It would be fair to say this album sits somewhere between the best Manes have to offer and the french electronic and rap band TTC. In fact TTC feature on the 6th track introducing the second part of the album after an unexpected burst of bird song.

So, yo yo yo blood. This album is whack fly sick. It was a bit of a shock to the senses on first listen. Too hectic, too chaotic and pretty much too stupid. The electronic music could stand up on it's own, but the almost opposing rapping is a bold and effective addition. This one grows, and every time I hear it and think how inappropriate parts of it sound, I can't help loving every foot stomping second of it.