Razor X Productions, "Killing Sound"

RazorX is the production team of Brits The Bug (Kevin Martin of TechnoAnimal, God, Ice, and more) and The Rootsman, who make blistering,aggressive hardcore dancehall tracks with the levels pinned to the redunderneath some of some of the most creative Jamaican MCs, and thisawesome two CD set collects the first ten 7" singles.

Rephlex

A friend of mine from work was born and raised in Jamaica, and he goes backhome quite often (it gets cold up here in Boston) and comes back withbootleg mix CDs and DVDs he buys on the streets of Kingston. Thevariety and flavor of stuff that ends up on these mixes are out of thisworld. The music scene is vibrant and flourishing, and to me it'salmost saddening to see only the people who are -influenced- by theJamaicans (see the indie crowd's warm embracing of M.I.A., Rhythm andSound, Lady Sovererign, etc,...) make the big waves around these parts.The MCs on the mixes that he's returned with that I've heard aresimilar in their execution to the ones here: using the voice as arhythm instrument as well as a melodic instrument, but the music isquite different. The Jamaicans music is much more pleasant andhedonistically driven, while Razor X are far more enraged, matching theborderline brutal lyric deliveries with music that's equally asrelentless.

Killing Sound unsurprisingly lauches with "Killer," featuring He-Man, a tune that has been arguably played out between the Bug's PressureLPand singles from both Razor X and Tigerbeat 6's Shockout, but thesong has yet to get old for me. It's matched in power and aggression bythe following "WWW" featuring Mexican, but both are upped by the evenlouder and faster "Slew Dem," taking things into overdrive, featuringWayne Lonesome, who's also made the rounds with Bug associate Kid 606in the last couple years. While it's strongly based in dancehallreggae, they flirt with other electronic styles like hard techno on"Problem Version" (a "version" on disc B without a corresponding original on disc A) anddrum and bass on "Yard Man" featuring El Feco.

I was having drinks with my aforementioned friend from work onThursday night and out of nowhere he started talking about the Jamaicandialect of English, and how, while a lot of English words, in hiswords, have been 'bastardized,' there's plenty of words and terms andsayings that have absolutely no roots in English. Listening to lyricsfrom the Jamaican MCs (both here and elsewhere) it's clear that I sureas hell don't understand even close to everything that's being said, soit's difficult for me to comment on the lyrical content. What I donotice on Killing Sound is that things are far morecomprehensible for a white guy like myself than the Jamaican imports.Only by the end, with a reprise of "Killer" featuring Warrior Queen onthe mic instead of He-Man, does the lyrical delivery come closer to themore animated Carribbean-based Jamaicans.

The differences in sound in no way makes me discount this album orthe music created by people from England or Philadelphia or Berlin: thesound of The Bug and Rootsman with the MCs is brilliant, and reminds mehow much I loved Pressure and ache for its follow-up. The musicon disc A is so intense, however, that it's hard to do much to asidefrom dance to and have fun to. Its attention-commanding qualities makefor a difficult listen to while working or trying to concentrate onsomething other than the music. Disc B is the B-sides collected, whichare the more instrumental 'dub' versions of the A-sides. It makes for asomewhat odd listen from start to finish of disc A and B, so I sayleave disc A in the car and use for both long trips and slow drivesaround the city and tote around disc B in a portable for working out ortaking public transport. The power isn't diminished for disc B in anyway, but with less intense lyrics and more free-flowing music make iteasier to use in more situations.

samples:

• I Don't Know (ft. Tony Tuff)
• Killer Queen (ft. Warrior Queen)
• Problem Version