London Town is the second album to be dropped by UK rapper, Kano. Kano has been busy since 2005's successful 100'000+ selling `Home Sweet Home' album which showcased the 20 year old's ability to appeal to a wide demographic. A mixtape released last year entitled `Beats and Bars' satisfied the man dem with its street orientated subject matter but suffered from the Achilles heel of most mixtapes, namely, under production and an excessive number of tracks. `London Town' out on 679 Recordings showcases a confident rapper who has learnt from experiences within the industry and has varied his lyrical content and musical style.

As one enters the album, they are greeted by a future street anthem, `Product'. A murky bubbling synth starts proceedings, and is then joined by short bursts of sharp snares. As Kano narrates slowly saying "one body, two body, three body, four, five more soliders dead on the floor", one can immediately tell this track is going to suck the listener in to the shadowy depths of Kano's cerebral. The track kicks off with a smatter of snares and is joined by an understated beat and Kano's rapid fire delivery. A simple, dark and heavily processed melody meanders through the track adding a sense of grandeur. In this track, Kano engages the listener with his most successful style, i.e. playing with the tempo of his lyrical delivery as the track progresses. This track is a brilliantly produced opener which stylistically echoes the `davinche' produced tracks from `Home Sweet Home'. Following that is the track most people have already heard, `London Town'. It is another well produced stormer which follows on perfectly from the opener. A simple kick-drum and snare exercise is joined by dark intermittent releases of bass drone whilst Kano raps competently in a steady fashion. Although the chorus isn't the most imaginative, the multi-dimensional beat progresses nicely with some fresh stylistic edges, and features some exemplary examples of `beat riding' by Kano.

Following `London Town', is the previously released banger featuring the lanky Ragga legend, Vybz Kartel. I know mans ears pricked up when Westwood announced the collaboration between these two `kings of industry' and the track immediately received good vibes from both sides of the Atlantic. Recorded in Jamaica and released earlier this year on vinyl only, one can tell from the title `Buss it Up', that it is not going to be a big player on daytime radio. Instrumentally we are treated to a high tempo `grimey-fied' military dancehall beat with occasional melodic beeps of traditional Jamaican instruments and a paranoia inducing, warping bass effect underpinning the track. Lyrically, Vybz is on fire, spitting rapid fire and freakily conservative Patois. The intertwining of Kano and Vybz in the chorus works splendidly and Kano holds up his end of the track with some break-neck beat riding which requires repeated listens. Track 4 `Badboy' continues the trend of beefy production values and rapid fire lyrical delivery but this time it is delivered in a slower (yet very fresh) R'n'B fashion with a slight Rasta tinge. So far, 4 tracks have dropped and each track has showcased top production (courtesy of Mikey J and Fraser Smith), fresh and unique beats and excellent lyrical delivery. Can this continue through the rest of the album?

Well, inevitably the answer is NO. `Fighting the Nation' is the next up. When Plan B did an acoustic grime track it made many sit up and listen. This attempts a similar formula but it ends up being a slightly feeble acoustic affair however it succeeds in sending out an important social message. Track 6 `Feel Free' featuring Damon Albarn bucks the downward slope and fully showcases Kano's transformation from street rapper to full blown alt.mainstream act. Contrary to what some may say, this is a fresh, multi-dimensional and ultimately, successful track with Kano's exercising his sharp lyrical delivery over dark oscillating beats garnished with twinkly piano keys and phaser FX. This the kind of track you'd expect to hear on BBC Radio 1 in the early evening after the pop music has been exhausted and before the specialist genre's are explored.

As the album progresses, things start to stutter and warning signs start to expose themselves. Track 7 `Sleep Tight' features a cinematic piano laden soundscape with sharp skittering snares and vocal harmonies which sounds pretty damn cool. There is a `hard to create' reminiscent feeling about this track but as Kano gently whispers "Sleep Tight don't let the bed bugs bite" one starts to think who this album is really aimed at. It's a shame because the verses contain some excellent wordplay and energetic deilivery. One can forsee the comic event of bad boys leaping for the volume control as the chorus kicks in. Failure to reach the volume knob would certainly would tarnish the reputation of any bad man bussin it on their ipod speakers or their Alpine subs.

The introduction of Craig David and Kate Nash results in glossy, mainstream orientated, hit and miss affairs which will appeal to more casual listeners. Track 10 `Over and Over' is a subtley crafted, intelligent piece which stands out as you reach the tail end of 'London Town'. It is a brooding, dark and grimey urban lullaby featuring a skeletal beat and fluctuating synth melody with Kano rapping about past and future in a way that draws the listener in to his world.

On this album Kano (refreshingly) doesn't rap about situations above his station. You can tell that the lyrical content is about issues that he has personally been involved in or has witnessed. Ultimately `London Town' is somewhat of a conundrum, albeit a slickly produced one. There are dark and grimey gangster tracks which draw inspiration from the best of the eski-beat explosion, there are intelligent and varied exercises in instrumentation, and then there are pop-tastic and drawn out crooning numbers. I can't imagine many people will be feeling the whole range of styles covered on `London Town' and hence, it can ultimately be classed as a hit and miss affair, but with more hits than misses. (AM)

For fans of: Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Sway, Akala

 

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