beans - shock city maverick
second album from the previous anti-pop consortium member. with the cover depicting the main man standing large and proud in his old school b-boy get up holding a monster battery eater boom box in front like some primeval weapon of mass destruction you know that this man means biz-ness.
like recent single 'down by law', the album is hip hop through and through. the beats, the vocals are all firmly based in the established genre, but this has a different slant as the sounds within these tracks sound distinctly raw, fresh and futuristic, as stripped down computer beats pump the woofers and synthetic sharp blasts of noises distress the tweeters to within an inch of their lives.
amongst this minimal backing beans lets his fast word play flow in fine form, sometimes invoking smiles, sometimes completely surreal and impenetrable (note: lyrics are provided for those who like that kinda thing). with a tight spitting/forcing words out style making the listener compelled to take notice whether wanting to or not. this guy does not do laidback story telling that's for sure, recalling in some way as the recent big juss album.
ok, its not an easy radio friendly album in any respect, there is little in the way of melody, hooks, there are no 'oh so hilarious' skits, no guest name appearances, no recognizable samples, no crossover appeal. instead the album is straightforward set of beat heavy tracks, which once have their groove set in motion do little to move on, making for a relatively 2 dimensional listen. but given time, and an open ear, there are some subtle nuances that keep the interest factor high enough to prevent the hitting of the 'next' button, the church bell loop set against a driving dirty electro funk in the excellently titled instrumental 'you're dead, lets disco', the appearance of a welcome sing-along chorus in 'shards of glass', the run dmc'd echoed vocals in 'city hawk', the sampled orchestral stabs (been years since i heard this sound !) in the album title track, and the fine 'down by law' single to name but a few.
if the album dragged on for an hour then i suspect that such stylistic monotony would become hard going, as it is though, the albums tight 39 minutes means that the chance of it outstaying its welcome are somewhat reduced.
so to summarise : a fascinating combination of bastard offspring schooly-d rap style, blended with vacuum sealed clinical future funk. good stuff indeed.