Muph & Plutonic: And Then Tomorrow Came (Music)
I guess this album is proof of how far Australian hip hop has matured.World class production from Plutonic paired with Muphs laidback yet sharp emceeing makes this a classic hip hop pairing in the vein of Eric B & Rakim, Pete Rock & CL Smooth or perhaps Kid N Play? Three albums in and it seems they have found themselves just the right balance of musicality and consistency that may have been slightly lacking from previous efforts. ‘Size of the Soul’, ‘The Damn Truth’ and the title track exemplify this new found cohesiveness. Another solid Obese release.
Review by Shinobi
T.I: Paper Trail (Music)
Tip had the hip hop world at his feet after the killer ‘King’ album but served up the lackluster ‘T.I Vs. T.I.P’ in a response that subsequently left him lagging behind Weezy in the title claims for King of the South.Thankfully (for us) T.I. ran into a few legal dramas (all discussed within this album) and has rediscovered the venom that had him being talked about with much dickriding back in ’06. Straight out the blocks the first two tracks ’56 Barz’ and ‘I’m Illy’ are straight fire spitters that leave you in no doubt as to T.I’s lyrical ferocity. Beats wise its back to the Southern synth sound that found him much success on ‘What You Know’, with tracks like ‘Whats Up, Whats Haapnin’’, ‘Whatever You Like’ and ‘Ready For Whatever’ using the Toomp banger as a blueprint for a good sub workout. On paper the track ‘Swagger Like Us’ featuring Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Jay-Z looks like a winner but doesn’t really sound like one. Someone please tell Kanye to leave the auto tune to T-Pain please! Overall a good return to form that should have ‘Paper Trail’ being talked about in bloggers record of the year lists come December.
Review by Shinobi
Samsung i8510: COOL PHONE BREEDS WITH QUALITY CAMERA! (electronics)
Up until now, phone manufacturers have avoided the hassle of integrating a decent sized image sensor into their products, limiting picture quality to the terribly pixilated crappy images and videos to which we have all now become conditioned. Thankfully a paradigm shift is now imminent thanks to the advent of the new Samsung i8510.
This little beauty is a fully featured alternative to the all consuming iphone 3G. It boasts 16GB of internal storage with expansion possible via microSD card slot. You get GPS and an FM Radio, full Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP support, Wifi and a built in accelerometer. It supports playback of all popular music formats including mp3, AAC and WMA and will even play DivX, MWV, MP4 and a list of other compressed video files.
The i8510 offers 8.1-megapixels of resolution and, more importantly, the processing capability to utilizing them effectively. This makes the i8510 the first phone which is good enough to function as a camera in it’s own right, thus negating the need to also carry a dedicated camera.
The i8510 will be received well by those who want access to the latest technology but prefer the tactile response of a mechanical keypad to that of a touchscreen control. Just as much a cutting edge compact digital camera as it is a compact digital phone, initial reports suggest that image quality is out of the ballpark of what is currently available, with significant advantages in both capture and image quality.
Review by Jason Burcher
Raphael Saadiq: The Way I See It (Music)
Thought we’d switch things up a bit by reviewing another R&B album this time from the somewhat underrated Raphael Saadiq, musical mastermind behind such groups classic R&B groups as Tony Toni Tone and Lucy Pearl. Back with a solo album paying homage to 60’s soul, it sounds like these songs were lifted from recording sessions from the golden era of Motown. He even goes so far as to have the songs clock in around the three minute mark which was the standard for the time. While this album could be very much misconstrued as just a straight bite of a nostalgic era of soul music, Saadiq has managed to add his own modern touch to the music and while not creating something entirely unique he has definitely shown that something old can be new again. Songs like ‘Just One Kiss’ and ‘Sometimes’ just make you feel good in the same way that Temptations classics like ‘My Girl’ and ‘Just My Imagination’ do. See, they still make good R&B.
Review by Shinobi
M-Phazes: Grindin Remixed (Music)
Grindin’ Records let Australian super producer M-Phazes have his way with their back catalogue of releases. So what we get is a mish mash of Aussie, American, English and NZ hip hop given the M-Phazes souled out remix treatment. For those that may not know of M-Phazes credentials, he earlier this year won a hip hop production battle that included Swizz Beats, DJ Premier and 9th Wonder as judges. The opener ‘Hold On’ featuring Foreign Beggars is a rapid fire head nodder that typifies M-Phazes stellar production values. The rest of the tracks follow a similar pattern of chopped up soul and vocal samples that create a nice chilled vibe, highlights being Mystro’s ‘Come Fly’ and OC’s ‘Times Up’. Having not heard many of the original tracks it’s hard to say if M-Phazes has improved them all - he failed to match the intensity of P-Moneys beat on ‘Scribe 2001’ - but he has definitely added his own unique touch.
Review by Shinobi
LAMBOLICIOUS
If you see a Lamborghini Gallardo out on a date with it's owner, ask if you can ride shot-gun!
Pronounced Gae-ar-doe, this is Lamborghini’s entry level super car and was the first car produced under the new Volkswagen group ownership. Gallardo, in Italian, refers to a breed of fighting bull.
While some may gawk at the $400,000 price tag when new, I, in fact believe the Lamborghini Gallardo is an absolute bargain! Wherever you go, you are the centre of attention, and assured to be the catalyst of many car accidents as driver’s gaze at your latest acquisition.
The Gallardo is like a dog with a stinger in its tail. It appears quite docile and you just want to run up to it and pat it. But hit the start button and your back is scratched by it’s thumping mechanical heart. The engine’s bark would put many a symphony orchestra to shame... it truly is eclectic.
That almighty kick comes in the form of a German engineered bent 10 cylinder. All up it produces 368kW, ironically it is almost the exact same power output as the current E60 BMW M5...it must be zee German sausages me thinks.
You’d also get the feeling the local constabulary would just pull you over for the fun of it to take a peek under the bonnet. Being a mid-engine super car, you could always have a laugh while they wondered where, indeed the engine has gone.
What you have to remember with any Lambo, is, that they are a selfish car. It doesn’t take into account practicality. Its only desire is to satisfy the pilot behind the wheel. That’s its soul purpose...
Lamborghinis have been somewhat toned down and are not as ostentatious as they once were. Although the prodigious wings of yesteryear have all but disappeared, the lack of aeroplane paraphernalia does not detract from the awe of the Gallardo. If you showed it to your grandmother, she’d agree it was an expensive car but she will probably ask you if it had a wireless?
Sure...you could buy a house...but you’d miss out on the panache the Gallardo exudes. And, take it from me, you draw more attention from passers by in this car than you would if you ran down the street naked with burning toilet paper dangling out of your pants, as I found out driving round the inner-west of Sydney.
It was interesting nonetheless, gauging people’s responses by their facial expressions. It even has the optional 6-speed $14,500 Electronic-Gearbox, that’s a new car in itself! Even though you’re paying a premium for the Lambo, it doesn’t mean you’ll get a decent sized boot of any description. And just a piece of advice... if you intend on going away for a weekend, only plan on taking the woman who will be sitting next to you.
So now the choice is up to you. Do you buy a $400,000 gallardo or 20 brand new Mazda 3's. Or maybe a boat... what about an apartment?
Put simply, the Gallardo was an awe inspiring drive. I would happily put my organic components on eBay to raise the funds necessary to purchase one of Lambo’s finest pieces of work.
SPECS. 2003 lamborghini gallardo
- Origin. Italy
- Engine. 90° DOHC V10
- Transmission. 6-Speed Paddle Shift, all-wheel drive
- Capacity. 5000cc
- Performance. 368kw @ 7800 rpm
- Price. RRP $400,000 (when new)
Review by David Mclaughlin. Photography by Phil Cooper
the game: lax (Music)
The third (and supposedly final) album from the Game has got me pondering a lot of questions. Like, why the hell has he got DMX saying a prayer on the intro? If anything we all need to be praying for DMX! And why does he need to mention his Rolls Royce Phantom a million times? OK we get it, you got yourself a Phantom! And it’s cherry red! And what’s he doing trying to sound like Nas on ‘Let us Live’? I mean he name drops at every available opportunity but is he trying to take being a stan to new depths? What makes it worse Nas features on the disappointing ‘Letter to the King’. And speaking of features why is there like 50 million guests on here? Funny thing is none of them are Dr. Dre.
Having said all that there are quite a few classic West Coast hip hop moments on this album. One of them is ‘State of Emergency’ with the legendary Ice Cube featuring the iconic squeely gangsta synth on the hook that takes you back to the era when Cube was talking ‘bout the ‘Ghetto Bird’. Another features Travis Barker bashing the drums on ‘Dope Boys’; yet another Dre inspired beat. ‘My Life’ and ‘Game’s Pain’ show he’s more than just a gangsta rapper and can hold his own with any emo emcee.
Once again the Game proves that he is his own man without 50, he has an undeniable talent for writing hardcore rap lyrics with just that right hint of sentiment, it’s just his constant name dropping can get a little grating.
Review by Shinobi
Onyx: 15 Years of Videos, History and Violence (Music)
Pretty much as the title might suggest this is fifteen years of Onyx video clips all neatly rolled into one neat DVD package. Onyx was at their peak back in the early 90’s, an era of hardcore hip hop where rocking hoodies and Timberland boots were stock standard. These videos perfectly capture this period in hip hop with moody black and white videos stripped down to the basics with nothing but the super hype Onyx boys and the local New York streets for background. Apart from the videos we also get commentary from Fredro Starr and Sticky Fingaz giving us some straight thug insights into the videos including the fact they were using real guns in their video shoot for ‘Throw Ya Gunz’. It’s actually a pretty interesting listen into what was going on in hip hop at that time. There is also a rare footage section featuring over an hour of live shows, interviews and behind the scenes video where we even get to see a young Biggie Smalls. A dope era of hip hop.
Review by Shinobi
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