Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Something of a phenomalie...

From the Streets to Sway, Estelle (new album coming soon - see, informative as well as entertaining eh?) to Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip and Lethal Bizzle (two...or should that be three...of my live highlights from 2007) UK hip hop's been going through a bit of a purple patch recently. We're finding our voice a little more, mixing it up like a bunch of bad muthas. It's this blending of US flavas (I promise I'll stop talking like this in a moment) with UK influences that's producing some of the freshest sounds around (last time...I promise). That's what makes one of my latest tips for the top in 2008 such a ear munching treat. Straigthoutta Hereford, The Anomalies have been been around for 3 years or so but really seem to have hit their stride in the last few months with Radio 1 support from the holy trinity of Lowe, Whiley and Lamacq (for Employee of the Month) and a tour with Messers Sac and Pip themselves. It's a real case of Thou Shalt Listen...new track Bamboo Beats (out in Feb) in particular is a glorious mash up of Fatboy beats, whacked out vocals, J5's old skool vibe and a little Kid Carpet style madness for good measure. Catchy as the norovirus, but altogether more enjoyable, it's a perfect slab of bouncing UK hip hop at its very best. They're touring the UK throughout February (check out their My Space page thingy for dates) before touching down at The Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath for one of the excellent weekly Wednesday night Platform Promotions gigs on February 29th. I'm prepared to bet that if you don't have a good time then you're clinically dead. So there.

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