- You Can Be Special Too is the latest artist album from Evil Nine, a duo who have recently become renowned for their alternative take on breakbeat setting the tone for Marine Parade with their rock infused breaks heavy on percussive elements and dark tones. Their sound found so much favour with Marine Parade label boss Adam Freeland that he decided to use a few of their tunes and remixes on his recent Fabriclive mix.
Def Jux MC Aesop Rock graces the mic with his abstract lyricism on Crooked, a tune guaranteed to get the masses chanting the chorus everytime it gets a spin. Deep monotonic bass meets crunchy percussive beats with dark pads and eerie tech effects. Devil Stuff has a notable 80's influence with an electro synth riff backed up by a rock bassline and guitar and cleverly placed drum fills.
Earth takes in sci-fi elements and opens up with a vocal sample which sounds like it's been lifted from a documentary. It's bleak futuristic hip hop and features an uncredited MC/hip hop crew who spit their diss raps. We Have The Energy turns up the tempo and brings out percussive breaks, intelligent cowbell and bongo licks, dark rock guitars lines and more sci-fi vocal samples.
Evil Nine show off their turntablist muscle on Snack Bar Lounge as they scratch up quirky vocals and hip hop samples on a slow-mo beat. UK MC Juice Aleem, known for his work on Big Dada teams up with Evil Nine for a Pearl Shot. It almost sounds like something that NERD would do yet a lot darker with distorted rock guitars while Juice Aleem delivers his vocal flows through a CB mic.
Already causing dancefloor mayhem is the preceding single Restless featuring the vocals of New Flesh's Toastie Taylor. Featuring a break that sounds quite similar to Blur's Song 2, Evil Nine introduce another rock guitar and bass riff in unison while Toastie Taylor graces the mic with his toasting ragga MC delivery. If that's not enough, he provides the tune with a sing-a-long factor with his vocals in the chorus.
Finally to round out the album, Evil Nine send out the Hired Goons to your speaker to bash your ear drums into submission. Long drawn out synth lines and rock guitars on a laidback tip are held together by percussive breaks providing a calm and relaxed atmosphere to close off the CD.
Unfortunately for the crew, Marine Parade had gone bankrupt right after the release of the album. Quite a shame too, since it has the makings of a good and original breakbeat release. If you can hunt down one of the few copies that did get released, nab it as soon as possible as it could be one of the best breaks releases that may never see the light of day.