Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam
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Track in this story
Ghostpoet - Longing for the Night
Ghostpoet is a London/Coventry based rapper and this is his debut album released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label. It’s an experimental record with elements of Hip-Hop, Dubstep, and Electronica to create a distinctive sound with his languid style of rap and the mellow future sounding beats.
After the strange 40 second intro track, the album gets going. ‘Run Run Run’ is catchy mellow tune with great Rhodes that goes with his half-asleep like vocals perfectly. ‘Us Against Whatever’ goes a bit more electronic sounding with a more synth based sound and more prominent drums. Once again his vocals contain that lazy sound, as it does on almost on all the songs, which adds to the laidback mood of the album that captures the feel of a dark and rainy England perfectly. People that aren’t from Britain however may find the album hard to grasp because of this. It fits the description of a ‘mood’ album exactly, so each track generates a similar feel to it, and that could be a blessing and a curse at the same time because you have to be in the mood to listen to it, which means that it’s great to listen to when you’re in the mood, but if you’re not, then it might not work.
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GhostPoet
For some of the songs Ghostpoet brings in some musicians to perform on the tracks and this works well to provide the album with a good flow. ‘Finished I Ain’t’ and ‘I Just Don’t Know’ take advantage of this with live drums and guitar alongside Ghostpoet’s self-produced electronic beats. ‘Longing For The Night’ is a clever track with an unusual sounding beat and a slightly jazzy / soulful sound to the music. The lyrics on this track for me are the best on the album; they capture the mood of England so brilliantly with that cold and dark morning mood that so many Britons will be familiar with. ‘Survive It’ is slightly more positive with its mood and the female vocals provide a good change to what’s expected from the song.
Video · Brownswood Recordings
Video · Brownswood Recordings
The lead single from Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam is ‘Cash And Carry Me Home’ which has a Roots Manuva like vibe to it. Once again the lyrics and music is impressive, however some people might find that the sound is all too familiar with a lot of the beats being quite similar, but for me that’s what makes this a good album rather than just a collection of tracks made over a few years, with no flow between the songs. ‘Garden Path’ has a really pleasant sound to it and the beat is extremely nice which somehow has an organic and natural feel to it. The album then finishes with something unexpected in the shape of ‘Liiines’ which has a rock-like sound with lots of live instrumentation, this definitely comes as a surprise but finishes the album well.
Track in this story
Ghostpoet - Run Run Run
There seems to be a new rise of electronic music coming out of England at the moment with the likes of Burial, Jamie Woon and of course, Ghostpoet who are providing some much needed difference to the UK music scene which was becoming stale and boring. This album is neither of those things and pushes the boundaries of what is expected from Hip-Hop making this a refreshing release and a great start to the musical year of 2011.
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Leo
Totally agree with you on the Roots Manuva similarities on that track. Will look into this a bit more, sounds good. Have to say I’ve never heard of him, the only UK artists you see getting pushed here seem to be ‘grime’ rappers.
Totally agree with you on the Roots Manuva similarities on that track. Will look into this a bit more, sounds good. Have to say I’ve never heard of him, the only UK artists you see getting pushed here seem to be ‘grime’ rappers.