- Gerardo Delgado and Quinn Whalley's music as Paranoid London reveres a certain tradition. They use vintage hardware, and most of their records are pressed on 180g vinyl with simple artwork and minimal fuss. Their sound has always been inspired by the old school, but on We Come To Rock they make their most explicit nod to the past. Cutting Records, a New York label started in the '80s, provides the title track's source material. "We Come To Rock" is a jittery hybrid that buries Paranoid London's pumice-stone percussion and samples of Imperial Brothers' "We Come To Rock" under a seedy bassline and an arpeggio that sounds like a gang of mosquitos.
We Come To Rock pays tribute to the sort of hip-hop-born electro pioneered by Cutting Records co-founder Aldo Marin and Jerry "Hashim" Calliste Jr, whose debut for Marin's label was the classic "Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)." But Delgado and Whalley don't simply exhume this stuff. In this record's guttural grunts and insect noises is something that feels alive. With bleached 808 cowbells and rimshots, "Buck Stoppin" is more obedient to its sample (Fantasy Three's "The Buck Stops Here"), but the original rap is transformed into a rushing stream of glossolalia. Beyond the vocals and the skeletal 808s, it's hard to put your finger on what makes "Buck Stoppin" so effective. Classic sounds are regularly revived, but few can make them breathe as naturally as Paranoid London.
TracklistA We Come To Rock
B Buck Stoppin