At last! One of the advantages of being a freelance reviewer, someone who writes about any music irrespective of genre, style, location or place in the musical hierarchy means that I get a good overview of what the new music landscape looks like. The disadvantage is also that I get a good overview of what the new music landscape looks like. Don’t get me wrong, all creativity is to be celebrated but in this era of cheap and accessible technology it seems that quality control is at a minimum. This seems especially true in the hip-hop and rap circles and a wave of back bedroom would be celebrities who think that programming a few beats from the package that came with their PC software and auto-tuning the hell out of a few cliches is all that is required.
Thank the gods of music for acts like Well Dressed Villains. Hide Your Valuables comes to these weary ears like a breath of fresh air. Hip-hop may beat at its core but it is the genre-hopping creativity that they use to drive that central sound and the musical landscapes that they leave joyride through that makes this stand out from the pack.
One moment they are revelling in hip-hop’s 90’s golden age, the next they are creating mutant, dystopian dance music, it drips with urban cool and rock muscle, tips its natty fedora to the old-school and heads into the sunrise of a new era dancing to a whole new beat..a beat purely of their own design.
