Still Life review.

Review: 3 out of 5.

Here, another underground artist, the visionary Graphic Designer and Rapper Kieron Boothe has made it with "Still Life". This mix-tape is the demonstration of his artistry. He worked with Aaron London, a singer-songwriter, MC and producer. From East London, Kieron has done well and revealed putting out another mix-tape very soon. My opinion, I have listened and I got to say, the originality is there and the content is quirky. No, that's not the right word for it, I think a perfect term is hybrid. Oh yeah, it's U.K. Hip Hop but this one crossed genres. I spoke to Kieron and insisted Grime is not where he'll go to. That, I can understand, but I'll get to that later.

Good:

Kieron really went all out in this collection of awe-inspiring tracks. Still Life is clearly about the many aspects of his entire life that has shaped up in his work. Every list of music, ripe for the picking, has a taste of who Kieron is as both an artist and the mistakes, problems and willingness to move forward. There are crazy times and other times he would share in this set. The mix-tape has many subjects people from aged 16 and older can relate to, but this ain't the usual school boy aggregation that fuels all of our teenage hormones (twenty somethings included). This is on a whole new level of development, I continue to listen and the hooks really do hold you in place. That is thanks to singer, Amanda Mellid, who sung and hit notes as pleasant as a Robin. Still Life reminded me somewhat of the Wretch 32 album, Black & White, though less about opposite ends of contrast and more of a half way point between vague and exposed. It is balanced and just about right, which bring me to the amalgamation of the crossed genres I said before.

From the rhyming to the production, most of whom composed by Aaron London, the airplay that came to a total of approximately over 32 minutes was amazing. While the crew swung by with songs as uncanny as Awkward, fast enough on point with any beat boxer and Mistakes featuring Mellid herself. This is the ballad or rainy day feel that showed the depth of how far he could plug away and elevate your conscience. On Still Life, the title track of the same set, I couldn't get over that punch line Kieron made "So I went from a boy to a teen, now a teen tryin' tah live a man's dream, Man it's real stuff, then it all went Almond's, real nuts". That was cool and the rest which followed blew up and combined everything neatly. I could go on and on, though it could drag on the whole review. Oh No weren't bad, the chorus was more on the irritating side but Kieron saved about a large majority of the song. Nice touch on the guitar, though.

Bad:

Not much I can say about the negative sides. Most tracks were likable, a couple stood out more than others. The only thing I didn't like was there are too many "fillers" and what I mean by that is a tune used only for the soul purpose of "chilling out" or "raving". Examples of these are Blue Sky, Oh No, Awkward and Dead End featuring Aaron London and Labrinth. While Awkward and Dead End were fine, Oh No was a bit much. I also felt they put a lot in at once, plus they were some that was a downer at times. I needed a high, something upbeat instead of mellow and only steady. It made Mellid not having much to work with even if they did fit her tone. Apart from this, it was a brilliant run and I did enjoy it.

Overall:

Great performance from Kieron, excellent concept and execution by many of the artists such as Aaron, Mellid and Labrinth and well mixed, composed master pieces by XX and again Aaron. I am blown away from the lengths that has gone into this mix-tape. It did come about as overwhelming at certain points and the hybrid flew easily through a pretty reasonable duration of air play. It fell right into place and the ideas didn't encircle. They are close to Karat gold.

- Written by Kbon.

Graveyard Grind (2012) review.

Review: 2.5 out of 5.

My next showcase of music is an underground artist called Igniite, with his mix-tape Graveyard Grind. It was released on the Datpiff website on the 27th January and has so far had quite a few plays ever since. He's fresh on the Grime scene and did a couple music videos you can actually view on his Igniite channel on Youtube. So what's my opinion? Not too bad, actually, but I feel it can be a little bit better.The artist did a lot of work to break through to people in any community about pain, struggle, hard work and happiness. However, I don't think it did enough to move everyone universally.

Good:

The mix-tape did have some parts that were adequate, like the Intro was sonically solid. I thought Igniite's tune was hot but I felt the start could of been more uplifting instead of slow and resolute. In this case, it's the set-up that started the whole part of the air play to a smooth start. "Grind Hard" feat. Young C wasn't too bad. The artist opposite Igniite has some hidden talent, which fell short only by his delivery. Apart from rocks, there is some tunes that speak for the ladies such as the track "She The Type", "My Strength" and "The Business". The last one was better out of all of the three and is well defined for its dreamy melody and finer content.

Bad:

Sadly, there was only a few tracks out of this mix-tape I believed was fine and saw past my judgement but I felt it didn't do enough to make a favourable clash on my I-Tunes library. Igniite promised, or at least attempted to reach to many age groups and barely crossed genders. The tape had a limited resource for content that spoke mainly about street credibility such as grinding, I am saying it's not right and I'm not trying to be a Good Samaritan. It's how you do it: sex, drugs, money and other illegal acts or negative stuff can be dealt with in another light and this was blatant.

Overall:

With a swell choice in selective range of music, cool swag and satisfactory list of guests such as Young C, J.A.Y and Jay Tee it was dampened by a concept that dries up fast. Sometimes it's okay to showboat but other times it can be too much. The statement Igniite made about the tape doesn't prove to me everyone can really connect with it. Graveyard Grind can only target Londoners who just hit puberty or those in their early to mid 20's. Igniite would do better in breaking out of the force bubble he trapped himself in than embracing it, especially in a niche genre as this.

- Written by Kbon.