Oxide

IT WAS A GREAT CD THE TRACKS WERE BRILLIANT THE MIXIN AND THE RAPPIN WERE PURE GENIUS. I RECCOMEND THIS CD TO ANY GARAGE LOVER.

Oxide and Neutrino are part of South London's notorious So Solid Crew collective. The sound and style of this c.d. is very similar to what you hear on So Solid's album-yet it does lack some of the truly exciting tracks (Like '21 Seconds') featured on that album. This is the current 'street' sound of London at this moment. Having developed their talents on their own pirate radio station, they seem to have come onto the scene as a real force very quickly indeed.

Basically this is a mix of U.K. garage beats with plenty of hip/hop thrown in. It's got that 'gangsta' rap style except instead of having U.S. accents they deliver it in their own distinctive manner. The music is very different to anything you'd hear from rap artists in the States. The arrangements are really very stark and bare. Decks, drum machine and then throw in the synthesiser effects give this a very minimalist sound. The strong beats of the drum machines are the driving force of this music. It's a unique sound and it's very good for a while-but then I found myself as the album progresses that maybe if the arrangements had a bit more depth I wouldn't get quite so bored with sound. They don't really use samples to flesh out the sound. In fact only 1 sample is in fact listed-a sample taken from Prodigy's "Start The Dance" on the excellent second track "No Good 4 Me". This track also sees fellow So Solid members Megaman, Romeo and Lisa Maffia appear. Guest appearances from the rest of the crew feature on several other tracks also.

At times the whole attitude of this c.d. is fairly menacing and aggressive-you'll understand this when you hear the first few notes of opening track "Execute". It sounds amazing but in many ways it's also unfortunately the albums best track-and this is a very long album. I think the tracks are a bit too long. They all seem to be over 5 mins long and when you're working with sparse arrangements it can only be listened to in shortish doses. There are some really interesting tracks on the c.d. The first 4 tracks are excellent.Track 6 has amazing rapping which uses the most sinister sounding synths as a background(think of a fast-paced moment in a horror film!). Then track 7 "Bound 4 Da Reload" kicks in. It's their most famous track-it's blatantly 'gangsta' in it's motives. Sirens wailing and then a sample of music from a U.K. t.v. show called "Casualty"-mixed in with some vocal excerpts that sound more like something from Pulp Fiction. It didn't get much daytime airplay on radio. "Fighting Machine" is a pretty dumb track-featuring various army sounds and explosions it just doesn't work for me. "Devil's Nightmare" is the longest track on the c.d. and it's also one of the more interesting on the c.d. The sounds of Gregorian Chants you'd hear on a cheesey horror film give this track a more varied sound. The album just seems to roll on and on(for 76 mins!) and I seem to always lose interest in the latter tracks. Still though there is enough here to make this c.d. worth investigating-if only to hear the sounds that are phat in London.

Oxide & Neutrino (part of the So Solid Crew) are the biggest craze in England...Admittedly, House & Garage is a bit of an aquired taste, but once it gets you, you can't get enough. This album is loaded with brilliant tracks like No Good 4 Me, Up Middle Finger, Check Dis, Remy on Da Floor...actually, practically all of them.

Dare to be different...get Execute! and other So Solid Crew albums... They're just on another level

totaly amazing definatly for the clubers.

TRACKS:

1. Intro
2. Return Of Da Supa(f/ Page)
3. Dem Girlz (I Dont Know Why)(f/ Kowdean)
4. Rap Dis (U Cant Stop Dis S**T)(f/ Swiss, Skat D, Kaish & Harvey)
5. Hands Up
6. Supa Sensi (f/ Sniper)
7. They Think Its Easy (f/ Sef)
8. War
9. Amsterdam
10. Sir Pimpalot (f/ Skat D)
11. Shoot 2 Kill
12. Rap Dis 2 (f/ Kaish, Swiss, & Thug Angel)
13. Hare 2 Get (f/ Twins)
14. Garage Beat
15. Party On (f/ AC Burrell)
16. Roadz Crazy
17. Payback
18. J99
19. 2 Deep (Japan-only track)