Search results: PoLo

Review: Richmond Hill, the highly anticipated follow up to Masta Ace and Marco Polo's Breukelen Story, is inspired by Marco's childhood in the titular neighborhood, a small town in Ontario, just outside of Toronto. Between interstitials about Marco's passion for hip-hop and cartoons, his struggle with addiction, and the support of his parents, Marco Polo and Masta Ace tackle the issues of the day head-on with clarity, the rapper using his decades-worth of rapping experience to slice through the producer's warm soul samples and crisp percussion. A cinematic journey that explores how the past echoes through the present, the album welcomes guest appearances from notable names from all eras of rap history, including Inspectah Deck, Coast Contra, Blu, Che Noir, Speech of Arrested Development, Masta Ace's longtime collaborators Stricklin and Wordsworth and many more.

Review: Dreamy electronic shoegaze from British group Blueboy, the one-time duo who later morphed into a large band, and saw a wonderful spate of releases throughout the 1990s. 'Singles 1991-1998' contain 25 singles from their various EPs released primarily on Sarah Records and Shinkansen Recordings. The songs are a frank expression of dream pop and indie, relying on pleasingly dreamy and washy, yet punchy, mixes when not making intriguing use of drum machines and unpolished vocal lilts. The compilation contains a postcard and liner notes by band member Paul Stewart.

Review: Samurai Breaks is the alias of Sam Langley, who's been throwing down some wild style rave gear for the likes of Sheffield's Off Me Nut amongst many others. Having graced Hooversound last year alongside Nova Cheq in 2022, now he's going alone with this six-strong testament to the frenetic new forms rave is being moulded into. The breaks, the hoover stabs, the MC samples - it's all in there, but there's a twitchy modernism to the way Langley juggles his source material which feels incredibly fresh. You can hear the whisper of footwork influence in the needlepoint rhythmic flex of 'Mystery Wobbler (dub)' while jump up casts its influence over gnarly shocker 'Skippy' and of course there's plenty of jungle vibes flying around this madcap EP from a fierce new talent.

Review: Few people chuck bars like Public Enemy legend Chuck D chucks bars. Though he is in the autumn of his career, this new record proves he has still got the skills to pay the bills. It finds him become Mistachuck and pay homage to the great American pastime of baseball as he spits over a collection of tunes that were first penned as Major League Baseball TV promos. We Wreck Stadiums doffs its b-ball cap to greats of the game past and present and salutes the impact they have had on the game with hip-hop Hall of Famers Chuck, DMC, and Rahiem & Kidd Creole of The Furious Five all featuring.

Review: First time released on 7" vinyl, and taken from the critically-acclaimed Non Phixion album The Future Is Now. This reissue of Strange Universe includes the original LP version produced by Necro, plus two new remixes by The Czar-Keys and Marco Polo. The Strange Universe was birthed amongst the numerous blunted, Colt 45 malt liquor-fuelled sessions Non Phixion had with Doom at their Area 51 studio in Canarsie in 1998. Necro provided the beat, which everyone thought sounded like something Doom would have made. It was one of the first songs recorded for The Future Is Now.

Review: We're always happy to have another reissue of Nana Vasconcelos works. this one from Altercat, 'Nana Nelson Angelo Novelli' is a cult album of Brazilian music from 1975, originally on the Saravah. It is a record which epitomizes of the sound of Clube da Esquina, which is the title given to an e explosion of sound fusions that occurred in Minais Gerais at around that time. It takes in rock 'n' roll, psychedelia, traditional bossa nova and percussive sounds and is well demonstrated here. Various moods, from the psychedelic 'No Sul do Polo Norte' to the funky 'Tiro Crusado' to the haunting 'Aranda' all make this a classic.