MR LEN - Straight Up
MR LEN - Straight Up (MP3)
I was originally going to say that if you think turntablism is essentially modern fretwankery (Tom?) then you won’t like this, but I now realise that this is a simplistic argument - more than half of the track is taken up by the emceeing anyway (though it repeats itself needlessly towards the end) and though it does consciously avoid an instant hook, it’s the best kind of undie production values, not the earnest-jazzy variety, but the kind that imbues musique concrete with the funk. Company Flow have been the masters of this, of course (there are moments in “Funcrusher Plus”, their 1997 debut which seems more stimulating and influential the further you get from it, where you literally can’t believe what you’ve heard) and this doesn’t equal their best stuff, but the involvement of The Arsonists (at their best on last year’s stunning Tex Avery-sampling “Pyromaniax”, for me a kind of undie “My Name Is…”, but never dull) makes it consistently thrilling.
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