DJ Fingers – Robots’ Rebellion (2000) (CD) (FLAC + 320 kbps)

– 22 tracks, over an hour of music, this is a big album to reintroduce us to DJ Fingers, remembered by those that know for his work with Sindecut.

The opening instrumental cuts set the scene – props to DJ Fingers over some bare funky beats, scratching delicately laced over the top.

The first vocal track comes in ‘A London Thing’ featuring Surgun, Demolition Man and Lyn e Lyn. As with most of the guests, the names aren’t that familiar. The vocalists really do add to the quality and diversity of the album as a whole though. There’s such a UK feel to the album, with it’s use of ragga vocalists as well as rappers. A full list of the guests: Surgun, Demolition Man, Lyn e Lyn, Crazy Noddy, Ras Simeon, Judah, Cultcha Mark, Devon, Nicho Demos, Wildflower, General Levy, Unsung – The Poet and from France, Alowin. Quite a list isn’t it! Most of them are relatively unheard of too. That should change though – Lyn e Lyn impresses greatly, as does Crazy Noddy who comes back with some nice styles and lyrics, and has an album coming soon…

So back to ‘A London Thing’ – I really like hearing the ragga vocalists over hip-hop beats, and when there’s a rapper coming in as well it just sets them off so well. Lyn e Lyn comes in nice – lines like ‘I saw you imitating on stage, I never felt ya, Some man to fast like they was Nicolas Anelka’, ‘If you’re from London or Scotland I want to hear your accent and slang’ stick in the mind, and the rhymes about fake rappers whose ambition seems to be winning ‘Stars in their Eyes’ is wicked.

All the instrumental tracks are wicked – there’s real variety in the styles, moods and beats used by DJ Fingers – something that isn’t all that common these days. I won’t go into detail because there are too many tracks, but the whole construction of the tracks, the use of samples and scratching, the changing of the beats mid-way through to keep the interest, is totally on point.

Crazy Noddy is the next vocalist up. His track, ‘Aug 31st’ is wicked – his insistence that it’s his birthday is a bit tiring – he’s making the point that everything else on that date has been overshadowed by the deaths of Di and Dodi, but once the track kicks in the lyrics are wicked. Talking about the hysteria surrounding their deaths – ‘I never seen so many people acting the fool – I should’ve learnt flower arranging when I was in school’ – he compares it with the lack of coverage of the massacre that happened on the same day in Rwanda where 300 women and children died. This isn’t an entirely original idea for a track – French group KDD did a similar one about 18 months ago, but that doesn’t make this any less of a wicked track. It’s a bit late but it’s a date which, like he says, will be overshadowed by the deaths of those two for some time to come.

Well I’m not going to do this whole album track by track – like I said, there are 22 of them. Basically, Wildflower comes proper and reminds us how much we need to hear solo stuff from her, talking wicked stuff about the dodgy US acts who come over and put on 30 minute shows with 15 minutes of it taken up with call and response. General Levy does his ting with style – all the vocalists do come to that. Fingers’ beats keep their quality throughout /UKHH.COM/.

1 Intro
2 On The Cut
3 A London Thing Featuring – Demolition Man, Lyn E Lyn*, Surgan
4 8-10 Days
5 Aug 31st Featuring – Crazy Noddy
6 Wake Up!! Pt.1
7 Robots’ Rebellion Featuring – Cultcha Mark, Devon, Ras Simeon Judah*
8 Don’t Stop
9 Oog’z Featuring – Nicho Demos
10 Code Of Practice Featuring – Original Foundation, Wildflower
11 Do The Job
12 Money Maker Featuring – General Levy
13 May Tricks Featuring – Ras Simeon Judah
14 No Gimmicks Featuring – Lyn E Lyn*
15 Postive Thinking Featuring – Cultcha Mark, Devon
16 Wake Up Pt.2
17 Escape To Hell
18 Angelletta Featuring – Crazy Noddy
19 The Wheel Featuring – Unsung The Poet
20 Asiatic
21 Je Garde Ma Fierté Featuring – Alowin
22 Rebirth

FLAC
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MP3 320
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