No instruments required...

The idea of this album intrigued me. A hip hop/rap/R&B/soul album recorded without any musical instruments at all. Every single sound heard on this CD (apart from one sample from another song) is made entirely by the human voice. Naturally (excuse the pun) there is some technology involved in order to bring this all together (where would the modern artist be without Pro Tools?), but it's all done with the voice. And for that fact alone, this deserves some recognition. It is an outstanding piece of work when looked at purely on this technical level. The band call this style "Vocal Play".

When it comes to the songs themselves, it is more of a mixed bag. There are lots of different styles on offer here, starting out 1980s synth sounds on the opening track Can Ya Feel It? which has a distinct "old school" quality. And then there's the Phil Collins cover. Yes, you did read that correctly, this album contains a cover version of a Phil Collins song, even though there are no real drums used and every sound is made with the human voice (have I mentioned that enough yet?) It's not a complete cover version however, as the verses have been re-worked, and only the underlying melodies and chorus of In the Air Tonight remain (as well as a vocal interpretation of the drum break).

Acutally, it's not the first "urban" version of a Phil Collins song, as lots of artists have used the song including Tupac, DMX and LL Cool J. And there was a whole album of Collins covers called Urban Renewal in 2001 featuring artists like ODB, Kelis, Montell Jordan and Brian McKnight.

Anyway, enough of my never-ending trivia, back to this album.

It lacks misogyny, pro-gun or pro-violence sentiment (and pretty much any other piece of mud slung at this section of music by lazy journalists). There is quite a strong religious message on a few songs too, which is also pretty unusual.

Whilst it may be a bit uncool for many fans of this genre, and a bit commercial (and some of the rap is a rap with a c, like those embarrassing late 80s/early 90s songs that had rubbish raps tagged over the middle 8) you would definitely catch some of these songs blasting out from the bling-mobiles cruising up and down Southend seafront most nights. They just wouldn't appreciate that it was all done with voices.