Search results: Get Ready!

Review: France's faves Battle Weapons deliver two heady new edits, only for those ready. On the A comes an ingenious, probably never-done-before, almost laughably why-hasn't-anyone-else-ever-thought-of-this-until-now breakbeat rendition of Peter Bjorn & John's 'The Young Folks'. To be frank, they've not done much besides beef up the backbeat a little, but a simple sprucing up is sometimes all a tune needs. On the flip comes a phattened version of 'Forgot About Dre' mashed up with the Azzido Da Bass UK garage classic 'Dooms Night', also produced to hilariously, surreally arresting effect.

Review: There are an awful lot of great records in the J Dilla's catalogue, but few can match the consistent quality and coherent construction of Welcome 2 Detroit, his 2001 breakthrough album. Designed as a love letter to his home city with a sample palette and blend of styles to match, it saw the late producer and a string of then largely unknown local MCs showcase their vocal talents over some of his best ever beats. This lusciously expansive 20th anniversary box set does a brilliant job in expanding on the original album, with the 12 included "45s" pairing vocal mixes with instrumentals, unreleased cuts and occasional remixes. The included hardback book is brilliant, too, and packed with first-hand accounts of the creation of a now iconic LP.

Review: We are still being treated to superb albums that were written during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdowns and this is one of them. It took shape across a two-year period in New York, Seoul, and London and finds the highly rated Yaeji looking closely at her relationship with anger. In something of a shift away from the sound of previous work, she brings in rock and hip-hop elements as well as her signature house style. The lyrics in English and Korean are dark and self-reflective, while the artist also employs live instrumentation for the first time. Guests include K Wata and Enayet, plus vocals from London's Loraine James and Baltimore's Nourished by Time.

Review: Known as one of house music's contemporary darlings, Yaeji returns to XL Recordings with a concept album certain to prove her worth as an artist well beyond hip, 4x4 vocal bangers. With A Hammer is an album with full cross-continental appeal, hearing Yaeji channel her regional affinities with Seoul, London and New York into a righteously angry comeback. Across it, Yaeji is accompanied by her metaphorical hammer friend - Hammer Lee - whom she uses proudly to smash the many heterodox expectations foisted on her and her community, and which have conspired to keep her down in the past. With signature bilingual vocals and an updated slick sound, the album also brings together tunes made with K Wata, Enayet, Nourished by Time, and Loraine James.

Review: Two years on from the release of her acclaimed mixtape-style full length debut, What We Draw, Kathy Yaeji Lee returns to XL Recordings with her debut studio album With a Hammer. Conceived (lyrically at least) as an examination of the singer-songwriter-producer's relationship with anger, the album sees Lee expand on her house/hyper-pop-influenced trademark sound via nods to trip-hop, rock, drum & bass and more, with the addition of - for the first time in her career - live instrumentation. Of course, amongst the musical tweaks and collaborations (Lorraine James, Nourished By Time, K Wata and Enganet all feature), there are still plenty of nods to her pop-leaning productions of old, not least bi-lingual vocals (she often sings in Korean as well as English) and a sense of sonic style that has always been one of the aural hallmarks of Lee's work.

Review: For a project that has taken thirty years it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown a lockdown-project. There's a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

The one remaining untapped energy source here is perhaps FEAR, refreshing when used correctly, but never imposter syndrome. As maligned and mutated as this British Hip-Hop might appear to be, it could not be more pure. Each member of all of the Hypocritical Beatdown crew were committed to this cause as soon as the doors opened. They rapped on stages before they had even tasted beer or lost their virginity and the curse had already taken hold in the years when these youngsters still had to be back home before dark and it has never left their bloodstreams.

That's why this record NEEDED to be made. Completed, recorded, exorcised, committed to vinyl, rotated and liberated. Not unlike the VHS tape in a well known Japanese horror film, every listened copy, complete with its broken beats, old-school sensibilities and Marmite Mancunian accents, adds to the mystic circle... breaks the dream... some people might even like it. If you were given a chance to go back and meet your teenage self, wouldn't you?