Raw As F**k by The Freestylers

  • Share
  • I’ll be honest. I’ve never liked breaks. I’ve never found it interesting and because of my musical preferences, to me it all sounds the same. I didn’t like it back in the early 80’s when spinning on your head to broken beats was a favourite pastime amongst the children of the excessive generation. And I certainly didn’t like it twenty years later when the same phenomenon swept the world again. The music, this time, was slightly updated and the beats more halted. Nevertheless, the children of the chemical generation were now too spinning on their heads. Some things never change. Or do they… A funny thing happened to me one day not too long ago. I received a promo in the mail. Nothing funny in that because I receive some every now and then. But it was the contents of the package that surprised me. As I held the CD in my hand, I felt a sense of disappointment because it wasn’t to my taste. But I thought I better listen to it, just in case, and slipped it into my trusty discman. Worst case scenario, if it grated my nerves I could easily turn it off. Well, I didn’t turn it off. I listened to it from start to finish. When the last beat of the last track had passed, two things happened. Firstly, my jaw dropped and secondly, I fell out of my chair. The CD I was listening to was ‘Raw As F**k’ by The Freestylers. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would enjoy an album created by one of the breakbeat massive’s favourites. While I realise that The Freestylers have been around since 1996, for obvious reasons, I’m not an expert where their music is concerned or of breaks in general, for that matter. I’m not going to pretend to be one either therefore I can’t compare this album with their previous releases. I can only go by my instincts, which tell me that this is a fantastic collection of tracks that shows a variety of musical influences and smacks of quality. More importantly, it is an album that can be easily enjoyed if you enjoy listening to quality music. Tracks such as ‘Boom Blast’, ‘Raw As F**k’ and ‘Get A Life’ are obviously breakbeat in style but they attracted my interest because of their underlying basslines. There’s a very dark quality to them, which I wasn’t quite expecting. I guess it’s not all about happy party breaks. Thankfully. Listening to ‘The Slammer’, ‘Punks’ and ‘Warrior Charge’ made me think I was listening to the sounds of violence in some respect while at the same time running away from danger. There’s just a nasty urgency in the beat that makes you look over your shoulder. There’s nothing there but you just never know. While I’ve listened to this album so many times now that it’s getting silly, two tracks that I would love to hear out in a club are ‘No Replica’ with its dubby, funky bass and ‘Right On’ with its more electro tinged bass. Absolute cracking tunes that would get any room jumping. Guess I’ll be heading to a breaks party soon. If there were one track that I thought lacked something, it would have to be ‘Dogs And Sledges’. For me, it had a rather annoying sing song melody and I found myself skipping this track every time I listened to this album. But that’s not to say that someone else listening to it wouldn’t appreciate it. Which leaves me to my three favourite tracks on ‘Raw As F**k’. The first single ‘Push Up’ has already been featured on radio and on music channels but I still can’t get enough of this tune. It’s thoroughly infectious and is a proper homage to the early 80’s pop electro sound without being ridiculously cheesy. A definite rump shaker! For me, the hidden gems of this artist album can be found in ‘Losing You’ and the closing track, ‘Too Far’. The former has a wonderful D’n’B inspired beat but is more uplifting in nature because of the overlying melody. It’s the kind of track that will put a smile on your face every time you hear it. On the other end of the spectrum, the haunting ‘Too Far’ is quite calm, almost melancholic in feel. Its’ sweeping, down tempo harmonies are not quite the style of music that I would have expected from The Freestylers. And it is this very reason, those unexpected moments, which made me enjoy this album so much. Production wise, this is on par with the better artist albums I’ve heard this year. It’s just the little things that you hear, the little quirks, and the samples, which give each track something extra. When vocals were used, they were used resourcefully. If it was the darker, nastier tunes, the male vocals were presented in such a way that you almost thought they were growling at you. With the more melodic, down tempo tracks, using a female vocal brought on a soothing, almost ethereal quality. Overall, I found this to be not only satisfying to hear but more importantly, completely dance worthy. By and large, the feel of this album revolved around breaks but there were touches of D’n’B and electro. While never straying into stupidity, each track was as diverse as the next therefore sounding original. As such, I now have a ridiculous need to listen to breaks and I completely blame The Freestylers. I rushed home that day because I couldn’t wait to hear all these tunes on my home stereo. That night I danced around my apartment like a deranged fool while ‘Raw As F**k’ was blaring through my speakers. Did they sound just as good? Nope! Better! It’s a funny thing when a stubborn person has to eat his or her own words. I remember, three years ago, having a heated argument with a friend of mine who loves breaks. He was trying to explain the finer points of the genre. After exchanging a few insults, I told him it would be a cold day in hell before I ever sat down to listen to, let alone enjoyed anything that was of the breakbeat persuasion. I pointed out that hell would freeze over before I ever found myself dancing to it. Brrrr… it’s been chilly lately… Much respect! Tracklisting: 1. Music Is Music 2. Boom Blast 3. Raw As F**k 4. Get A Life 5. The Slammer 6. Push Up 7. Punks 8. Dogs And Sledges 9. Warrior Charge 10. Losing You 11. No Replica 12. Right On 13. Too Far
RA