roots manuva - awfully deep
third album from the big voice that belongs to rodney smith kicks off big dada's game plan for 2005 in fine style.
having been 4 years since his previous album it's clear from the lyrical content that roots has had some heavy personal issues to deal with, which on first listening makes this album somewhat of a downbeat uneasy affair, but given a little more attention it becomes clear that this album verges close to being a stone cold classic from start to finish. taking into account the spread of sonic styles, the big voice, the clear story telling, and the sheer awesome-ness of the bass heavy production makes this an album to really dig into and soak up the excellence on offer.
the main factor is that the 51 minutes is packed to the gills with easily digested vocal hook lines that hold the tracks together brilliantly. the highlights come thick and fast. from the hilarious saturday morning tv referencing declaration of 'swing your pants' in the opener 'mind 2 motion', the scary intense gothic electro groove of the personal breakdown manifesto set within the title track where rodney tells of his torments and inner demons having to face the reality of the probable loss of his wordplay talent, the electro twitchiness of recent top 40 single 'colossal insight' (a track which didn't sit well at first when released as a single - but in the context of the album it works brilliantly), the fantastic old school dubbed up monsters of 'a haunting' (a lost trojan classic dubplate if ever there was one) and 'move ya loin', the urban scattershot beats of 'rebel heart' (with definite nods to the blossoming grime scene), the dancehall funk of 'babylon medicine' and so on and so on ..
while many get excited about the return of dance music's leaders like the chemical brothers and daft punk they should be checking out this for the real sound of 2005, as one of the figureheads of uk hip hops (rodney denies the accolade within the lyrics but hey he is .. ), has carved out his own niche in the rhymes and beats genre, where simple pigeonholing just aint possible with an album as brilliantly sonically diverse as this. thankfully though, the spread of styles works in the albums favour, as root's commanding vocals provide the soul, grit and emotion throughout adding a welcome degree of consistency, hence keeping the listener involved and attached. it should also be noted, there are no tacky skits that populate most hip hop albums, no throwaway jokey tracks, just 14 straight up tracks, making this an album that will definitely provide a solid soundtrack for many months to come.
excellent stuff.