Rappers' Delight
I've always been naturally suspicious of pigeons. When those little rats with wings so much as even swoop down in a five metre radius of where I'm standing, I run off squealing like a pig at a slaughter house. I'm not quite sure what provokes that embarrassing reaction in me, but I'm hedging my bets it was watching Hitchcock's The Birds as a youngster. So, when presented with a CD with a bloke standing with Pigeons flying out from his shoulders I eyed it with the concern you give small children fondling pick and mix with their dirty, grubby hands and scream to yourself 'Not the Rhubarb and Custards! I love the Rhubarb and Custards you little bastards.' Anyway, it again appears that looks are certainly deceptive and instead of an album solely made up of the cawing of pigeons, instead was something a whole lot less terrifying.
'Escape from the Pigeon Hole' is a rap album for want of a better description, with me not being cool or aware enough of the current street term for a rap album which uses jazzy interludes, samples, snatches of audio clips and that has generally quite a laid back feel to it. Easy comparisons can be made to Jurassic 5 and Blackalicious here but this seems to stand up on its own and does have an impressive effortless sound of its own.
You get all that rappery stuff, you get in most albums that being talking about yourself in the third person (personally I think it makes people look a bit mentally imbalanced if they can't identify themselves as 'I' when they talk about themselves – you kind of want to avoid eye contact with these people and cross over the road quickly). But despite all the usual pomp of the rap genre, that whole bitches and ho's and bling thing isn't so apparent here. In fact there is some clever and witty story telling here, especially in 'Open Relationship'.
This is an album that you would hear someone like Zane Lowe playing to death and no doubt in his own, annoying way, rapping over during the whole bloody duration of the track he's playing. It's summery, cruising music; an album that you could have on in your car without looking like you are going to pop a cap in someone's arse at traffic lights.
This is an impressive effort and despite the pigeons of the album cover, 'Escape from the Pigeon Hole' is clever, thoughtful and musically interesting.