After thinking long and hard, I thought its best I start with a true story analogy, to help frame “my personal review” that you are about to read in the right context:
Before I left the UK, I had the pleasure of watching ‘Avatar’ in 3D at the iMAX in London. I was blown away. The depth, the feeling, the incredible detail and CGI that James Camron and team put into it was evident for a brilliant 2hr ride. I got totally lost in ‘Pandora’ and fell in love with the ‘Navii’.
Upon my return to Zim, I found a Bootleg DVD copy of ‘Avatar’ in a pile of DVD’s bought from Avondale flea market, at my Sister Chido’s crib. I told her “YO! This is the BEST movie...” and she said... “I thought it was SHIT!”. I thought she was crazy, but when I put it into the DVD player, I realized why... It was a poor ‘2D bootleg with Mono audio track’ of a ‘7.1 Dolby Surround 3D Blockbuster’.
It was no longer the immersive work of genius I had watched 3 times at the iMAX in London, it was now a fucking poor rip off of ‘Polcahantas,' ‘Dancing with the Wolves’, ‘The Last Samurai’ and all those many other cliché’s of movies. Without the 3D 7.1 Dolby to give perspective, ‘Avatar’ sucked in a bootleg form.
How does this relate to the Monkey Nuts??
Well, I first experienced the Monkey Nut at SHOKO 2012. I was blown away. It was the night of Mash-Ups and they had Hope join them for some of their songs. As a band they where phenomenal. Their Look was just DOPE! Their Sound was futuristic and unmatched by any band in Zim. Then it was a 4 piece: JC (Front Man), Tino Tagz (Synths), Impi (Lead) & Dweebbler (Bass). (Not sure about my spellings, but I’m sure the lads will correct me if I’m wrong.)
I have since seen them about +/- 7 times at different venues, and every time, I’m in awe of these young bros. they are very “real” and Josh is lyrically up there with some of the dopest lyricist. I ain’t seen Dweebler in a while, heard he be overseas studying (He's even off the website ), so now they have Aston on Bass and they added Zim’s most incredible Drummer, Leeroy, to their set.
I now, pretty much, know their tracks. I’ve sung along and always try and catch their live sets!
I looked forward to #SOON (Something Out of Nothing) since they first announced in the fourth of 2012. So when it dropped it was déjå-vu. ‘MC Chita’s Ambassadors Son” all over again.
Shit! I wanted to like it... really. I knew the songs well and wanted to relive the feeling I get when JC shouts out “I refuse to Lose!” or “Light the Fire LET IT BURN!” with that triumphant voice... but alas...
City on the Hill (Ft. Dikson)
The first voice you hear is Dikson, who, lets face it, isn’t exactly Aura the Poet, slamming “poetry” un-rhythmically over the dissonance of a mixture of Mbira’s (read: Nyunganyunga) and Synths. This weird juxtapose, I guess is to highlight something, but Dikson seriously seriously was probably not the best choice for opening up a Debut EP. I have listened again, for the sake of this review, and I still don’t know what the fuck he’s on about. Guess he is the Exec producers bro... so... Whats a Zim project without some nepotism?? (I kid; I Kid)
For those without audio software installed, here’s a basic, cross platform free audio editor for you to “De-Dikson-ify” this track, just cut off the first 1min 15 Secs. It improves greatly once u do that, coz JC is lyrically very dope. Unfortunately he’s mixed very low in the track as compared to the dissonant soup he’s swimming in.
The heart breaking moment is when the normally triumphant, defiant “Light the Torch let it BURN” which josh normally rallies the crowd to join in and chant as he screams in the mic, sounds mute and numb, with a bit of an echo. Taking you back to my analogy at the top. Having experienced this song live, (without Dikson), this recording does not do the song justice.
Afrotech (ft. OutSpoken)
Starts off with a Sitar like intro to a war movie. Sounds DOPE!! The Drums are that HIPHOP, head banger. The Lyricists are inspired here. JC holds his own against arguably the best lyricist on the Continent OutSpoken, proving his pedigree.
The Song is another myriad of social commentary from both MC’s.
I have NO idea what the first chorus says. Its got tons of that warp, verby spacey effect. Inaudible. The Second Chorus, OutSpoken does the “singing”... ah well, after that stellar verse, he is forgiven! In fact, this is lyrically the best HIPHOP record on #SOON. Impi’s gits are haunting... Tino Tagz’ synths paint a perfect sound scope. This is one of the Songs I haven’t heard live, so was actually a pleasure to hear without the 3Dv2D bias.
Mapfunde - ReMix (ft. Hope Masike)
Welcome Miss Hope Masike. Every one knows this is my SHIT! That Mbira, them Shona vocals... that HIPHOP... ahhh heaven!!!! The song takes the traditional Shona hymnal, Josh’s verse is not about games and innocence. I guess the song is a highlight of the paradox of Youth and Real life.
My only gripe is that Josh is again mixed very very low!!! Song is too short, would have loved to hear Josh have a verse 2. The Avatar analogy again comes back... Josh delivers with such emotion live, and the Sound scope is sooooooo 3D live. It looses some of it soul in the recording. (u are going to hear this a lot!)
Lost in the City (ft. Hope Masike)
Very dope sound scape on this record. The drums now, after hearing Leeroy, seem like stock loops. Hope again lifts the track with very strong vocals. Josh isn’t nearly as upfront in the mix, as one would like for a Frontman, which improves in Second Verse oddly... which then ducks again when the drums kick in.
Ndapedza (ft. Hope Masike)
This is Josh’s BEST VERSES! I rewound this tune many times and is the most played in my iTunes.
Hope is very high in this tune, as compared to when the boys have had to do it themselves when Hope isn’t there live. The tune is uplifting. I fucking love it.
“I refuse to loose... in this game called ‘life’”
One of the EP’s Standouts.
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Conclusion:
Lyrically, JC goes deep on this EP. He’s like a Black Thought. People will always hail The Roots and forget theres one MC at the helm. He’s the most important member of the band as far as I’m concerned. He holds them together by stitching the Music with the Meaning and the Emotions.
I’m beginning to notice that you could string all his verses into One song, coz content wise they are very similar in the themes... Dear World, Social commentary, Demonic Concept illusions????? Don’t know what that is, but sounds pretty cool though menacing!! He's a smart dude. Who doesn’t try to make you ‘Happy’ or make you dance.
His performances on this EP, thus far, do not resemble the MC we see on stage (I know I know, I’ve said this plenty already). I don’t know if it was being rushed in the studio, or who was present or having no-one shouting “No- please retake that line!”, but sometime the emotion doesn’t come through.
Examples:
“Screaming out LOUD till the whole word hear it...” City on a Hill - one would expect Josh to really articulate this line, with a higher cadence, velocity and conviction. He just says it.
“Its funny how u make things change in an instant...” Ndapedza - on a line like that... a Jay-Z would definitely make you hear the sarcasm, slight chuckle and irony of that sentence. Josh delivers it flat.
Musically the Band plays well. Very well, but they aren’t always mixed well. The multiple layers of their sound scope is often flattened.
The mixture of Hiphop/Electro and Mbira is awesome. Hope Masike is a star. The A&R who put these guys together is genius. The Monkey Nuts make Hope COOL, and she give the Monkey Nuts that authentic Afro swag. On stage they work well together and on record, its like they are the same band. It never feels like a contrived mistake (read: unlike Track 1 ft. Dikson).
Now I don’t actually have the credits for #SOON, all I know is the Exec producers are OutSpoken & Comrade Fatso. Exec producers, in the traditional sense of the word, would be the financiers of the product, with little creative input. So I don’t know if the Exec Producer title is in the traditional sense or they actually where hands on in the production. They must however be commended in believing in the band and putting in, what must have been, a lot of work! Live bands and Live Sound recording isn’t easy.
The person I would like to shoot for #SOON has to be whoever on the EP who was considered to be where the “buck stops”. The actual project producer. The person who finalized the mix and thought to mix the main cog of the Monkey Nuts engine, JC, down & submerged. The person who took a 3D sound that we all love and flattened it into 2D, with very little depth. Better direction on the vocalist to get the best performance, would have helped elevate the emotions on the tracks and made the verses less interchangeable.
See; everyone in #ZimHipHop who I have spoken too, has pretty much felt the same way. #SOON is a BIG moments of 2013. No body had anything bad to say about the band, everybody said they love the ‘Hope & monkey Nuts’ mix, Everyone who has seen them live doesn’t believe for a sec that this is the best we could get from our favorite band. Its the curse of being GREAT. Not bad... Good enough... these are superlatives that people find hard to say next to a Great Band.
Maybe I set the bar way to high for these lads. I know that if they sucked on stage, I probably would really dig all these records. it’s just that I have personally heard then sound a lot better. I’m hoping on their LP, they manage to capture that magic in a studio.
Follow them on @theMonkiNuts
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