Ghostown – Reflectionz (Jamendo)
How cutting edge am I? Discovering and reviewing albums released a mere 7 months ago, trend setter me, a latter day John Peel. Anyway, Reflectionz is an albums worth of eclectic Hip Hop which does eccentric as it should be done, hurling in acordians and random styles without allowing them to take over any track in a gimmicky manner. Certainly things could be pushed further, experimented with more but nonetheless, it’s good to see it being done at all. It’s not dark music, but it is heavy, it bubbles along with a relatively up beat feel but there’s that little something about the beat which adds an edge to it all, a bit like their quasi-namesake really and that’s an excellent feel to have to an album. There’s nothing blunt here, there’s a fair few different levels being worked but none of them has been hurled in without thought and the production is really rather excellent.
Complaints? None really. Not saying this is perfect of course but it is interesting which is something sorely lacking with a lot of music in the genre at the moment, it does what I’d love to see more people doing, using the vast scope for variation that Hip Hop offers to mix it in with the vast amount of bizarre and beautiful music that’s already out there. Unfortunately the general mood at the moment is simply to stick within the boundaries of what’s gone before, cutting the genre off from everything else and assuming that it needs to develop all by itself, a habit which probably warps my own opinions of Reflectionz, there’s a hint of that exploratory spirit here and that’s rare enough to be praise worthy in itself.
Anyway, whilst I can’t complain about the music I can raise some grudge with the rest, what’s availible on Jamendo is simply an EP, the full album you have to buy through their MySpace, so not strictly free music which slightly goes against my notions of how things should be but what is, is I suppose. Would I buy it? I’m really not sure, the music I like, certainly, but I’m a fundamentalist about this sort of thing, I want the free music movement to be an equal alternative not just a marketing tool for those looking to sell stuff. Then again, until this new model of music distribution has found its own way then who can be blamed for looking to make cash from what they love?
That’s nothing to do with the actual music though of course, which is certainly worth the download, if not the purchase. Listen, enjoy and wonder what could happen if more people were looking beyond what’s in front of them for inspiration.
Final Rating: 82%