ALBUM REVIEW: Sepalot
- Posted on May 19, 2008 11:42 AM
- 0 comments
Sepalot
Red Handed
Review by Tim Kernutt
Sepalot's sound is as un-formulaic as Russell Brand's comedy routine. It is the funkiest hip-hop sound that you would ever want to hear.
Sepalot shifts effortlessly between hip-hop, eletronica, rap and any other imaginable related genre on the new album, "Red Handed". Sepalot, as a musician, is hip-hop's answer to Prince, before Prince became the artist formerly known as. This is hip-hop beyond hip-hop, where the genre of hip-hop merges with other musical forms to create a mish-mash of sounds a far cry from the music of hip-hop's forefathers.
One of electronic music's features is its sampling of tunes of other artists, and "Euro-Trash" trance is particularly famous for this. However, Sepalot takes a different view of such things – instead, Sepalot samples a range of different artists on original tunes, with no-less than nine different artists featuring on the album. Whether it is Frank Nitty, New York rapper Saigon, German soul diva Miss Platnum or Frank N Dank, there is no doubt that you could not possibly grow bored of the various sounds of "Red Handed".
For me, it is the voice of New Zealand's Ladi6 – featured on the tune "Go Get It" – that is the real stand-out. This is a song that would sit pretty in a James Bond film. Mysterious like Hitchcock, sultry like Argentina and as sex-charged as Salt N' Pepper in the early 1990s, "Go Get It" is the dark-horse single of the album.
However, it is "She Likes Me", featuring Frank Nitty, that Sepalot decided to release as the album's first single, and it was somewhat of a hit with both European and international DJs. Its success comes as no real surprise, as within one listen I was embarrassingly attempting to rap along with the chorus like it was my business.
The songwriting skills of Sepalot are for the duration of the album in-your-face (or more appropriately in your ears), from the commercial rap-sound of "The Intro", the worldly "From the Get Go", or the ultra cool, "Smile",
This is a highly recommended new release, and will appeal to all hip-hop and electronic music lovers out there – and even those who enjoy a more commercial sound.
Rating: 4/5
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