akira the don - when we were young
and so it came to pass that in the month of november 2006 the long awaited
album by akira the don finally hit the shelves of record shops all around the
country. not the world as was originally hoped, just the uk. you see, if you
have followed the drama, you will be aware that a couple of years ago after
having released a couple of lo-fi fruity loop records the dons music was
overheard in a hairdressers by a rather cool record label honcho thus
instigating some kind of chequebook storm and all manner of chaos while people
tried to tie down akira the don to the corporate flagship.
thing is, if anyone had done their research and dug into akira the dons past as
adam alphabet they should have realised that the path to a commercial successful
album would not be an easy one. even in his drug-addled gonzo journalist life
adam was prone to speaking out against one and all with little regard for the
pain his remarks may care. this is what made him different. he was often wrong,
and lashing out at the world, but his open heart wordplay was never less than a
good read that provoked, outraged and downright pissed people off.
however, around the same time as record honchos got the all necessary signatures
on relevant contracts (remember this was a six album deal - a very rare event in
the industry apparently) adam went through a personal revision, he became a
politically-charged entity, he matured as a person, he started to ride his shiny
red bike.
his blog became a daily insight into the horrors of the world (often usa based
horrors), he was part of the corporate machine, but was often online revealing
the inner connections and corruptions of the very organisations that were
forming the foundations of his supposed future success.
akira used the blog to spread his one sided message. and damn it spread. regular
mixtapes blending hip hop classics, indie, electro punk, and all manner of
freaky freestyles into a massive melee of lyrical foreplay were thrust out,
breaking bandwidth limitations and forming the blossoming don squad. all prior
to the any of the real big budget productions were released. pre-myspace viral
marketing teams. pah. this one man did it all with a moustache, a keyboard, and
big fat broadband pipe.
there was the odd blog entry giving an insight into the recording process and
the characters involved. despite being an interscope project it became apparent
that eminem and dr dre were not going to stopping off at the studio - thankfully
in my humble opinion, instead the tracks have been touched up by james 'you
cant google me' brown, and danny 'i worked with black grape you know'
saber giving the album a solid rock-pop shine to the hip hop grooves, but still little actual official product was given the honour of
a release.
until we got clones.
for me, clones was a massive breakthrough. here was a radio friendly
crossover record that should have gone to number 1. the combination of the
electro loops, the alice cooper sample and the sheer forcefulness of the
hook were beyond anything he had ever done before. the record was massive in
everything but sales.
and then all went quiet. very. where was the interscope marketing muscle being
used. no adverts, nothing. a few coded missives indicated all was not well with
the record label. ireallylovemusic bumped into people all over the place
telling me the album was brilliant (charles de galle airport of all places!),
something was not going according to plan.
then slowly the plot began to unravel.
the album eventually dropped through the letter box in its skinny promo form,
all 13 tracks (well 11 really as the album bookends, intro and outro,
don't really count) of it.
i listened. listened again.
and the penny dropped.
of course within the 50 plus minutes are all the things we love about the akira
the don sound. there are the real life stories, there are the non-standard hip
hop attitudes, but deepest of all there are fingers being pointed at
institutions that run the new world order that we are allowed to dwell within.
there was no way that a large record label like interscope would be able to
market this british skinny white hip hop dude to the mass market in usa without
experiencing some seriously heavy duty action.
but more of that later.
the album kicks things off with a hard hitting, big budget revisit of an old lo-fi
demo b-side, liverpool, during which adam tells us of his adventures as a
youthful runaway. the song is as fierce as it always was, but scratch beneath
the distorted bassline and mash of noise, is a tale of a kid who just wants to
go home and get a hug. this sonically harsh opening is followed by clones
giving the listener a hands in the air lift and a smile on the face. the happy
mood is continued in the hipster referencing love song, oh! what a glorious
thing. a song so simple and direct in its hippy vibes, a delicate guitar
loop and corny backing vocals, the song can't help but lodge itself in your
short term memory. the chorus is one of sheer pop perfection. a massive hit
surely. well yes, if they had pressed up a few more copies than the limited 1000
copies on 7" only.
and now that love is in the air, it's only right that adam tells us a story of a
youthful puppy love crush story to a real word orchestral backing, love.
the end results are supremely warm sounding and rather nice. lulling the
listener into false sense of security.
from here on the mood changes. bankers utilises a well known school kid
discovery as to what happens when you say the word with your fingers in the
corners of your mouth. as it has been a few decades since i performed this
action, the track took me back, of course the lyrical action reveals adam
contempt at the banking community and the corruption that he so firmly believes
in.
so that's a major part of the corporate world miffed. next up come the real
crunch track.
thanks for all the aids
to a really happy-n-easy guitar loop and melody that in other hands would win
over radio playlists easily, adam, and studio mates, points his finger for all
the wrongs in the world to the presence of the white man. and i mean everything.
it's a hard hitting track that lyrically pulls no punches, no one is safe,
elton john, pete doherty, live8, nme, and even adam
himself get a lyrical deserved kicking. i wont go into individual snippets, but
it's easy to see why the record label honcho recoiled in contract fear hell when
this track was listened to more carefully than a quick once over. now, the easy
thing would be to take this track off the album, but knowing adams style - there
was no way this was going to happen. so back to indie land (hello something
in construction) the album came.
from this highpoint (or in many peoples eyes i suspect - lowpoint!) in
controversy things pull back, slightly. we get a disco friendly glitterstomp
groove of london including some fantastically spooky backing vocals, a
happy youthful innocent glow inducing back in the day ( involving more budget
swallowing epic kid choir!), and the deep down and funky loops of 1234567
during which he rallies against religion. of course, jesus christ wasn't going
to get away with it, he had to be dragged into this modern soundtrack for
adolescent pain. following the shock titled dead babies, comes the albums
punchline, hypocrite. during which he openly admits that while he may be
speaking out against one and all, he is as much at fault, ie human, as the rest
of us. though for many, i suspect this shrewd get out clause may be a case of
too little too late mate.
the album closes with more of the movie clips which are interspersed across the
album, i recognised snippets from classic tv programme the prisoner which
implies there is a thread across this love-n-hate filled concept album.
like adam/akira, the album wants to be loved with its massive hooks and easy
digestible pop styled production, but whether people will accept his against the
system role playing is something that will have to be seen.
extra extra : akira the don - the complete set