Deekline & Wizard - Breaks, Beats & Blondes

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  • Breaks, Beats & Blondes is the long-awaited debut album from one of breakbeats uber-production duos Deekline & Wizard. Throughout the years, Deekline (AKA Nick Annand) has made a name for himself as a highly skilled DJ and producer being responsible for tunes like "Don't Smoke The Reefer", an official remix of Old Dirty Bastards' "Got Your Money" and "Every Posse & Crew" (with FreQ Nasty) rocketing into the dance charts in the UK and earning Nick maximum kudos in the breaks, garage and 2-step scenes not to mention his Rat Records label which is gaining momentum in the breakbeat scene for its attention to high quality breakbeat releases. Engineering wizard Wizard (AKA Greg Fleming AKA Dreb) is no stranger to dance music either working with the likes of The Prodigy, X-Press 2, New Order and playing guitars on The Chemical Brothers' last album, Come With Us. As a team, they've also concocted some lethal dancefloor bombs such as a remix of Skibadee's "Man-A-Man", "4x4x4" and more recently "Get Dirty Baby" done under the guise of The Booty Bouncers. The album opens up with Why Don't You, which sounds quite similar to a Deekline remix of Northend's Can't Put No Price. For the album version they've taken away the electro vocoder vocals and vocal samples and replaced them with Yolanda on vocal duties and other electronic tidbits. Good thing too as Yolanda provides dancefloor oriented lyrics and an easy to sing-along-to vocal hook. Yolanda reappears again on the deeper electro-infused Wasting Time where she sings about broken down relationships. The converse of this is the booty bass influenced Ill St Blues, the second single from the album, where Yolanda takes on love and relationships in a lighter manner. The Aussie breakbeat connection appears in the form of Bushpig where Deekline teamed up with Melbourne based heavyweights Nubreed, Phil K and Ransom. Originally released as an instrumental on Supercharged (to rave reviews too!), the two have updated the tune for the album with extra percussion and getting Yolanda to pull off a ragga style toast on top and Mixologists DJ Benny G to add in a few cuts and scratches. MC Spoonface (AKA Black Legend) is known for his cover of Barry White's "Trouble" (as Black Legend) and also his work with FreQ Nasty on his Y4K mix and more recently adding vocals to FreQ's remix of Kelis' Milkshake. He provides vocals to around half of the tracks on the album, most notably his stance on political issues covered on the acid house/breaks crossover Truth Is A Lie where he namechecks people like Bush, Blair and Bin Laden all the way to 50 Cent. The electro 2-step stomper Feel The Heat sees Spoonface go into ragga MC mode and it sounds like Deekline & Wizards' answer to the Freestylers' Boom Blast from their recent LP Raw As Fuck. Spoonface and Yolanda team up to provide more ragga vocals on All Your Love and last but not least he provides sung vocals and spoken word monologue on the closing track, Soulmonster on a dark, grimey breaks tip. Sun Is Shining features an acoustic guitar hook played by long time friend and scratchmeister Donna Dee, who's worked with Deekline and Wizard on several releases on various labels. It has an upbeat tempo and a summery vibe featuring plenty of percussive elements and big tom tom souding drum fills throughout. Responsible for vocal duties are Desy on Indian style vocals and drum'n'bass MC IC3. 4x4x4 is another acid house/breaks crossover tune and was the first single to be released on the album and features the vocals of David Elliot (Dionne Warwick's son) and sampled vocals from Michael Watford. The tune itself broke heavily into the dance market and reached number 1 on the Australian dance charts. Heavy on the four to the floor beats, the tune features a funky bassline, squelchy acid house hook and plenty of drum fills throughout while both vocalists give it an old skool rave feel. The only tune on the 13 track LP which does not have a vocalist on it is the Miami bass/electro breaks influenced Bodypopper, which itself is receiving full support from the likes of the Plump DJ's, Zed Bias and many others. It's a bass heavy monster featuring plenty of electro activity, synth hooks, vocodered vocals and b-boy drum beats. It's Deekline and Wizard's interpretation of 80's electro breakdance music with scratches done by Benny G from the Mixologists. Deekline & Wizard have taken the unorthodox path with their album - the vocal infused breakbeat and sure it has been done before by many breakbeat artists but never an album full of breakbeats and vocals (minus one instrumental cut). Breaks, Beats & Blondes takes on a very human approach, getting interactive with the listener as the vocalists sing and rap about life, politics and feeling good on the dancefloor. This one should raise the stakes on future breakbeat LPs.
RA