You’ve heard “Be Your Own”, you’ve heard “Bluebird” – now it’s time to experience the full impact of the children of possibility known as One Self.
With a career marked by critical acclaim and a hardcore following, DJ Vadim could have continued to work as a producer with whoever he liked – the cream of MC talent from around the globe. As one of the few producers to straddle the divide between independent hip hop and more leftfield instrumental music, he could have stayed in the comfort zone. But this time out he decided to gather his closest musical collaborators together with him to create a true group ethic and radically freshen up his approach in the process. The results are sensational, a revelation.
Both Swedish-Brazilian Yarah Bravo and American Blu Rum 13 have been long term Vadim-associates but in addition have rhymed with everyone from TTC to Canibus to Luke Vibert to Kid Koala. Their voices, placed together for the first time, mesh into a lyrical, melodic blend which summons up memories of the best of Native Tongues updated for a new century - Blu Rum’s gruff, musical growl the ideal foil for Yarah’s sweet, octave-hopping, spoken word stylings. Two intelligent MCs with sacks full of ideas but the subtlety not to ram it down your throat.
The effect of working with two so well-matched vocalists (along with a new obsession with dub and the bass heavy music of the Caribbean) seems to have revivified Vadim’s approach, a real sense of sunshine permeating a record which still punches its weight in terms of stylistic innovation and experimentation.
So while the album opens with Blu Rum’s proletarian anthem, “Fear The Labour” and the unstitched rocksteady of “Trying To Speak”, the listener soon finds themselves bouncing to the warm bass of “Temptation” or the street soul of “Over Expose,” the carnival punches of “Sunshine” or the meditative spaciousness of “Hollow Human Beings”. And Vadim still comes through with a trademark instrumental track in “SD2” which is as fun as it is fucked up.
So there you have it – a true unit (One Self) working together to open up new possibilities for themselves and for the music they love. A perfect record for a summer as cerebral as it is soulful…
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"Thoughtful US emcee blu Rum 13 lends a considered lilt to the aleady
intelligent production"
Hip Hop Connection
"Exceptional"
Record Collector
"Sweet, intelligent, subtle hip hop mixing big slow bass beats with amazing
live vocal performaces"
The Fly
"This album sounds not far from perfect"
Big Cheese
"One Self have truly created a musical world of their own where an
unstoppable creator of large beats meets lyrically inventive visionaries
with powerful yet playful voices"
Straight No Chaser
"Holistic street-level charm distilled into super-fluid beats and rhymes"
The Telegraph
"superb"
The Times
"Some of the most inventive shit of our time."
Trace
"Beautiful - minimal beats kissed by the eastern sun.”
ZOO
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