More T Hawk than M Bison…

[Video][Myspace]
[4.83]

Martin Skidmore: He seemed to be guesting everywhere on grime tracks five years back. I’d kind of expected another poppy house remodelling here, but this isn’t like that at all. It grinds along with unwelcoming rhythms and harsh sounds, and he jumps around on top of it — it’s much more like Dizzee’s first tracks, though this doesn’t make me grin like those did. The backing may be a bit slow to suit him, I think, but I still like it.
[6]

Mallory O’Donnell: Grime like this is very much in danger of painting itself into the same stylistic corner D&B winnowed itself out in. Of course, that could be a good thing, because that’s what made D&B sort of die and then mutate, whence grime. In a just world, it would still be this fucked-up and born of basements, but also able to embrace sounds that aren’t exclusively masculine, street and hard. Meanwhile, we have this, which is intriguing enough. But does it have to be so difficult to enjoy?
[4]

Jonathan Bogart: Props, I guess, for hammering home the one joke. Maybe I’d care more if I’d spent more time with a joystick in high school.
[4]

Anthony Easton: Adds texture and dimension to traditionally thin eight bit noise, which must mean something.
[6]

Chuck Eddy: Speedy monotone rapping that sounds cool but doesn’t seem to convey anything interesting; wacked-out electronic effects that sound cool but don’t particularly do much for the groove — the U.K. has a hundred hits like this every year, doesn’t it? Or is that just a misconception I get from the Jukebox? If I lived there, I expect I’d get sick of such things. Here, where I only hear them now and then, I kind of like the novelty.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: Cute as a novelty, but is this collection of disorientating special-move-samples better than the actual background music from Street Figher II? No.
[3]