Hip Hop Tek Vinyl & CDs

Review: For those seeking a genuine experiment in the vein of dark, gritted electro-techno mixed with battle DJ-esque, medley-style hip-hop and turntablist chirps and scratches, look no further than this record. Four classy, metallurgic takes on a classic hip-hop track each - 'Paid In Full', 'Raw', 'So Whatcha Sayin'' and 'Cold Gettin' Dumb' respectively - amount to a weighty hydraulic techno pressing, neither deterred by the precious demands of the hip-hop genre (the beat-form is largely sordid, hardcore 4x4 techno) nor sacrificial of its themes. In the record's lighter moments, we hear this unknown artist make sole use of their source material's self-reflexively energising nature, with 'Raw' especially wafting off a proto-techno prescience with quantized breaks and a pre-drop "I'm coming" sample. Best of this crock, however, has to be 'So Whatcha Sayin'', unrelenting in its jacked-up flow speed and unrepentant in its splatting snares and kicks.