ONE SELF BIO.......
You’ve heard
“Be Your Own”, you’ve heard “Bluebird” – now it’s time to experience the full
impact of the children of possibility known as One
Self.
With a career
marked by critical acclaim and a hardcore following, DJ Vadim could have
continued to work as a producer with whoever he liked – the cream of MC talent
from around the globe. As one of the few producers to straddle the divide
between independent hip hop and more leftfield instrumental music, he could have
stayed in the comfort zone.
But this time out he decided to gather his closest musical collaborators
together with him to create a true group ethic and radically freshen up his
approach in the process. The results are sensational, a
revelation.
Both
Swedish-Brazilian Yarah Bravo and American Blu Rum 13 have been long term
Vadim-associates but in addition have rhymed with everyone from TTC to Canibus
to Luke Vibert to Kid Koala. Their voices, placed together for the first time,
mesh into a lyrical, melodic blend which summons up memories of the best of
Native Tongues updated for a new century - Blu Rum’s gruff, musical growl the
ideal foil for Yarah’s sweet, octave-hopping, spoken word stylings. Two
intelligent MCs with sacks full of ideas but the subtlety not to ram it down
your throat.
The effect of
working with two so well-matched vocalists (along with a new obsession with dub
and the bass heavy music of the Caribbean) seems to have revivified Vadim’s
approach, a real sense of sunshine permeating a record which still punches its
weight in terms of stylistic innovation and
experimentation.
So while the
album opens with Blu Rum’s proletarian anthem, “Fear The Labour” and the
unstitched rocksteady of “Trying To Speak”, the listener soon finds themselves
bouncing to the warm bass of “Temptation” or the street soul of “Over Expose,”
the carnival punches of “Sunshine” or the meditative spaciousness of “Hollow
Human Beings”.
And Vadim
still comes through with a trademark instrumental track in “SD2” which is as fun
as it is fucked up.
So there you
have it – a true unit (One Self) working together to open up new possibilities
for themselves and for the music they love. A perfect record for a summer as
cerebral as it is soulful…
