killatapespodcast Montener The Menace
‘Anyone Home?’ – Review
Words by GrimeeQuick (21.05.21)
The first thing that strikes me, straight off the bat, is how authentic it all sounds. It’s very true to the traditional sound that is now recognised as real, golden era boom bap.
There’s a real honesty in the vocal tone throughout the whole album. Like a strangely appealing yearn or an ache. Flow and the use of multi syllables is reliable and again has that traditional authentic hip hop sound. Honesty and rawness seem to be the focus though, as opposed to just clever wordsmithery.
The use of other voices has been well thought out, the collaborations are a healthy break placed at perfect points of some of the tracks throughout, that seem to have been peppered across the tracks subtly and expressively but without smothering every track for the sake of promoting features. ‘The Struggle’ is a good example of this, a song that is roughly half way through the album but consists mainly of other voices; breaking up the album nicely.
The production is tight, crispy and a spacious. The vocals are perfectly clear and compliment the drum-heavy mixes throughout the album. ‘Dog Food’ is a brilliantly produced track. From its format, down to its production and mastering, this is one of the stand out tunes of the whole release. Singer Dixie Daye also adds so much to this song, it’s stunning.
There’s a great sense of journey from start to finish. It’s probably hard to piece together an album at the best of times, so I always appreciate it when an artist has created ups and downs throughout an album with some thoughtful track-listing. It also helps if every track is just as entertaining as the last.
‘Anyone Home’ is an inspiring and real hip hop album. I’m off to buy a record player…
rating: 10/10
link: https://certainsoundrecords.bandcamp.com/album/anyone-home
