Day 0947 - Boy in da Corner

Dizzee Rascal "Boy in da Corner" (2003)

This was actually not quite what I was expecting.  I'd gotten used to his more radio-friendly releases like Bonkers, Bassline Junkie, or that song with Calvin Harris.  Dizzee's first release though is a trailblazer for the Grime genre, mixing hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, dub in a way that often almost does away with melody in favour of rhythm and energy.

There's the broken beat and synth line of "Sittin' Here", the banging beat and dirty bass of "I Luv U" and the digital beat and occasional bleeps of "Live O".   "Brand New Day" has an almost childlike backing track but one that's slightly distorted to make it seem off-kilter.   That vibe matches some of the lyrics which show the mindset of growing up in the sometimes depressing, sometimes violent environment of the housing projects.

Coming up from this background Dizzee latched onto music as something that he was good at and could funnel his energies into, and was DJing and MCing from his early teens.   This, his debut album, was released when he was around 18 or 19 and managed to win the coveted Mercury Prize... so, obviously he was onto something.

Day 0934- Power in Numbers

Jurassic 5 “Power in Numbers” (2002) – got it

I was introduced to Jurassic 5 through the video for “What’s Golden” (a single from this album).  I was struck by the great beat, interesting production, smart lyrics and the chorus that manages to be catchy without needing rely on a sample or a guest singer.  The real clincher for me was hearing Chali 2na… this group is more than one MC but his bassy percussive rapping style was something I hadn’t really heard before.

I picked up this album not long after that, and it didn’t disappoint.  The tracks have a lot of soul and jazz that sounds like similar to what the Soulquarians’ were doing, though in this case that sound comes courtesy of DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark.   They lay a jazzy groove behind “If you only knew” and strings and melancholic guitar in the Nelly Furtado-featured “Thin Line”.

I like that while there are touches of typical hip-hop braggadocio, the group are largely humble, intelligent and kick against the misogynistic and ‘gangsta’ norms found in some areas of hip-hop.

There is some speedy, snappy rapping on track “A day at the races”, and in fact across the record the MCs seem able to speed it up or slow it down to suit.  They also have a really great style they deploy which is somehow legato and staccato at the same time… like the vocal equivalent of driving over a cattle-stop where the words flow together but each syllable is bouncing off the previous one… ah sorry, I’m dancing about architecture.

Essentially, it’s an album that is bursting with talent, from the core members (most of whom have pursued solo careers) to the guests who include Kool Keith performing the acapella track “DDT”.

J5 would go on to release one more album (2006’s “Feedback”) before splitting up.  While they have reunited for the odd show, no further material (outside of the single "Customer Service") has been released since then.

Day 0760 - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Pavement "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" (1994)

I think I preferred this one to the previous Pavement album in the list.   I've seen it referred to as a more mainstream sound than the previous album, but I dunno.  It's still quite noisy and has some unconventional compositional directions.

Though the album has some nice hummable melodies, there's still a lot of noise.   A sparse piano part will appear out of a cloud of fuzzed guitar.  A rock song will suddenly give way for an extended, repeated clean guitar section.  There's a jazzy instrumental in 5/4 time "5-4 = Unity" which is a tribute to jazz pianist Dave Brubeck but it also has elements of rock and even rockabilly on show.

The 90s are obviously well underway by now with that idea of it being cool to not care.   Singer Stephen Malkmus is just so unimpressed, and so cynical, and takes the time to make fun of several other 90s rock acts in song "Range Life".

Day 0653 - What’s That Noise?

Coldcut "What's That Noise?" (1989)

"What do you get when you combine an art teacher and a computer programmer?"  Sounds like the setup to a bad joke, but the answer is actually 'Coldcut'.   The two had started off DJing individually and eventually made contact and started working together.

Much like the previous entry from 808 State, this is an interesting electronic album, built mainly from samples.  Unlike the 808 State album though, this one does have a few featured vocal turns including Mark E Smith from the Fall (“I’m in deep”), and Lisa Stansfield (“People hold on”).