Record of the Month
Paul White
Worryingly, it’s already been a year since I reviewed ‘Paul White and the Purple Brain’ and a whole lot’s happened in that time. Some Royals wed, Bin Laden got dead (allegedly – spurious sources tell me he’s living in a two-up, two-down just outside Bromley) and now ‘Rapping with Paul White’ drops. Its said predecessor was a mesmeric concoction and accelerated Paul White’s development as one of the most exciting, and decidedly out of left field, UK producers. And it’s clear that he approaches this LP with similar gusto, marking his first full-length vocal hip-hop foray with guest appearances from the likes of Guilty Simpson and Jehst. In an increasingly staid hip-hop landscape, White’s downright intriguing production puts the the rappers firmly in the xenon spotlight. What’s more, his playfulness and wonderfully disruptive approach feels, well, necessary.
As evidenced on previous LPs, he can’t resist an offbeat sample to bring a quintessentially British sense of humour – in contrast against the transatlantic talent – to proceedings.
“We don’t know where we’re going to, but we sure make a lot of noise.”
Regarding the latter, that much is certain, although not just yet. The warm blues hum of ‘Right On’ is flecked with lightness and… hang on, is that a didgeridoo in the background? Despite White’s intense layering and incessant use of idiosyncratic samples, the LP avoids convolution, however. If anything, through weaving these disparate threads it becomes something much more holistic, and much less a collection of oddities.
Another of his formidable talents lies in the ‘suitor/suitorette’ pairing of rappers with fitting instrumental support. Like Blind Date gone right. The distorted boom bap of ‘Trust’ is handled adroitly by Guilty Simpson and the lyrically ooh er missus ‘One of Life’s Pleasures’ is too much fun (and reminiscent of ‘The Only One’ by Danger Mouse and Jemini). Elsewhere, White’s filmic sensibilities (à la Roy Budd on ‘Get Carter’) are revealed on the witty, lost-in-translation themes of ‘A Weird Day.’
‘The Doldrums’ is an early favourite – the twinkling source track and canned laughter are revealed long before the vocoded vocals begin, and act as the perfectly disguised backdrop to its bass-heavy footprint. Truly unforgettable also is the down and, er, dirty, ‘Dirty Slang.’ This opens with a cry of “Look out, there’s a monster coming” before that monster under your bed reveals itself to be anything other than a figment of the imagination. And I couldn’t possibly finish without a nod to the beguiling ‘Wily Walruses’, which features Nancy Elizabeth laughing her way through an Edward Lear poem. It is nonsensical, yet scenical in terms of the vista it evokes.
‘Rapping with Paul White’ is the perfect showcase for White’s idiosyncratic skills. Although what’s clear is that the array of vocalists simply accentuate the supreme talent that many of us would lay claim to have already realised. Even amongst the rapping onslaught, White still has more than enough room to breathe, and his many and varied instrumental interludes are the glue between the formidable set-pieces. A funky fresh take on the genre, this is how hip-hop sounds in ’11…and, boy, does it sound good.
Words: Ben Nicholas
‘Rapping With Paul White’ is out now on One-Handed Music. Download album track ‘Trust’ featuring Guilty Simpson for free, and stream the album in its entirety below.
