Fake For Real - Tag - D-StylesThe English written companion of Fake For Real: since 1997, reviews and articles about rap music2024-03-11T20:40:46+01:00Sylvain Bertoturn:md5:a035ff44a020bb716e18191580d6e9ecDotclearTHIRD SIGHT - The Golden Shower Hoururn:md5:7a35253e7f9e9966ca7ee452d240f7e72014-11-08T18:26:00+01:002014-11-30T11:48:48+01:00codotusylvAlbumsD-Styles<p>With indie rap, it was not always easy to know where such or such artist, or such or such record, was really coming from. The musical influences were multiple, and sometimes, one's artistic impulses would preclude the necessity to represent a region, a style, or a posture. Let's consider the first album of Third Sight, for example, <em>The Golden Shower Hour</em>, some consider as an underground classic. When listening to it, it is not evident that it is coming from sunny California.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/1998/third-sight-the-golden-shower-hour.jpg" alt="THIRD SIGHT - The Golden Shower Hour" title="THIRD SIGHT - The Golden Shower Hour" /></p> <p><strong>Darc Brothas Records :: 1998 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NO1SWC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000NO1SWC&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>Actually, it looks more like the futurist, gloomy and Company Flow-like kind of rap which was all the rage in the deepest of New-York's underground, by 1998. Jihad, the MC, Dufunk, the beatmaker, and last but not least, D-Styles, the turntablist (Beat Junkies, Invisibl Skratch Piklz – a man known for much more playful records than this one) were all established in the Bay Area. Nevertheless, this emblematic album of the first years of the indie movement, looked like a perfect translation of the late 90's East Coast's most gothic and cataclysmic rap.</p>
<p>The band's mission was the classic one: attacking wack MCs. And the style was almost pure boom bap, with the rapper's deadpan and precise flow, and an imperturbable rhythmic. But in a very extreme way, with heavy beats, a terrifying austerity (just listen to "The Execution Starts"), and a particularly insane and sinister vocabulary, mentioning things like hostage-taking and gas chambers.</p>
<p>The record benefited from Jihad's deep voice, and the large place left to instrumentals, more particularly the irreproachable scratches of D-Styles, the virtuoso DJ ("Rhymes like a Scientist", "Smegma in D Minor"). It was also remarkably constant, despite the surprising evolutions in some tracks, typical of experimental hip-hop. Sometimes, it was getting almost formulaic ("I Will Never Leave You", "I'm Kinda Vain"). But more often, it was just fantastic and anthological, like with the long and indolent "Rhymes like a Scientist", almost an anomaly on such suffocating a record, and with the incredibly tough "Hostage".</p>
<p>These few tracks were no less than exceptional. And they had to be that great, since it would take no less than 8 years, before hearing again from Third Sight, thanks to <em>Symbionese Liberation Army</em>, another praised release, but an album not as strong and seminal as the fundamental <em>Golden Shower Hour</em>.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2014/THIRD-SIGHT-The-Golden-Shower-Hour#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2162THE GROUCH, DADDY KEV & D-STYLES - Sound Adviceurn:md5:dbdf4fa2474913b06ae10b61d68996fe2014-07-12T23:16:00+02:002014-11-30T11:51:34+01:00codotusylvAlbumsD-StylesDaddy Kev<p>In 2003, the casting had changed for the dream team made of Daddy Kev and D-Styles. After some fruitful collaborations with Awol One, the Los Angeles beatmaker and the DJ from the Invisibl Skratch Piklz had finally exchanged the hoarse voiced Shape Shifters MC, with another key rapper from California: The Grouch, from the Living Legends. Together, as the latter would announce it on frantic violins, they would make their best to bring something new to hip-hop.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2003/the-grouch-daddy-kev-d-styles-sound-advice.jpg" alt="THE GROUCH, DADDY KEV & D-STYLES - Sound Advice" title="THE GROUCH, DADDY KEV & D-STYLES - Sound Advice" /></p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.legendarymusic.net" hreflang="en">Legendary Music</a> :: 2003 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S52ZGE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000S52ZGE&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p>And they fulfilled that promise. On <em>Sound Advice</em>, they were all letting themselves go. Usually too linear a rapper, The Grouch adopted there a more fantasist and malleable flow. As with the now disbanded Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the turntablist D-Styles stayed loyal to his crazy kind of deejaying, even if he was a bit too discreet on this record. As for Daddy Kev, the producer, who was delivering most of the work, he seemed to have lost absolutely all inhibition since the <em>Slanguage</em> album.</p>
<p>The spirit and boldness of free jazz, which had been the basis of the latter, were back on <em>Sound Advice</em>: crazy saxophones made it again, as well as delirious pianos, bouncing contrabasses, and mad hi-hats. Nobody knew exactly where each track began or ended, but it didn't matter. The MC was making his best, out of this disorder. His raps were marked by a total freedom, including some slogans here and there, like "live the way you want to" or "freedom of expression is beautiful".</p>
<p>After <em>Slanguage</em>, some had been a bit dubious. But now, there wasn't any more room for doubt. Very short – 21 minutes only – <em>Sound Advice</em> had pruned anything superfluous. Denser, this record was also more accessible, it was much catchier. From "Square One" through the piano on "Climax Cleverly", including the very rhythmic "Usually" or the melancholic "Visibly Vocal", <em>Sound Advice</em> was full of delights. So much that this record, though the less representative of The Grouch's rich discography – more than 15 solo albums, is maybe his absolutely best.</p>https://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/post/2014/THE-GROUCH-DADDY-KEV-D-STYLES-Sound-Advice#comment-formhttps://english.fakeforreal.net/index.php/feed/atom/comments/2114D-STYLES - Phantazmagoreaurn:md5:165ee01b75404fdba058575d997a92522012-08-07T23:11:00+02:002014-11-30T12:05:08+01:00codotusylvAlbumsD-Styles<p>Turntablism! Scratches, cuts, virtuosity! This is the usual package delivered by D-Styles of the Beat Junkies, one of the best DJs from this West Coast Filipino community which, curiously, is full of experts in vinyl handling. Moreover, not content with excelling in that domain and illuminating others' records with his scratch talents, he released one of the rare albums of this kind that are listenable and exciting from the beginning to the end.</p>
<p><img src="https://english.fakeforreal.net/public/Pochettes/2002/d-styles-phantazmagorea.jpg" alt="D-STYLES - Phantazmagorea" title="D-STYLES - Phantazmagorea" /></p> <p><strong>Beat Junkie Sound :: 2002 :: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010HPRGE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0010HPRGE&linkCode=as2&tag=fafore05-20" hreflang="en">buy this record</a></strong></p>
<p><em>Phantazmagorea</em> is not an immersive record, or something that stirs guts. That's not the nature of the turntablism game, anyway. But this album from 2002 has other strengths: it is continuously playful, fantasist, and inventive. It is even funny, despite the DJ's inclination for macabre beats, horror movies and laughs from beyond the grave. D-Styles knows, indeed, how to handle irony and grotesque. For example, he plays with the innumerable curses rappers usually like with the introductive "Beautiful Ugly Sound", or he associates words in unexpected ways with "Won't You Be My Neighbor", where an abstruse "he likes hamburgers and chocolate ice-creams" is catapulted in the middle of morbid lyrics.</p>
<p>Of course, D-Styles knows how to transplant on records pure deejaying exercises, when he starts a battle against Q-Bert one the quite good "Cliffords Mustache", for example. But he can make songs, too. Even if the record has no lyrics, but only bits of movie dialogs, the DJ knows how to place choruses, like with the astutely named "John Wayne on Acid", a blueprint for the genre. Or, on the opposite, he can get into some long, dismembered and epic finale ("Mr. Arrogant"). To bring us back to familiar lands, he also makes fun of hip-hop routines, "Like that Chall" and "Flowtation Device", and he copies MC habits when he starts some kind of DJ posse cut with Babu, Q-Bert et Melo-D, on the absolutely tasty "Felonious Funk". Last but not least, he can flirt with other genres, like dub ("Terror in Dub").</p>
<p>Diverse, catchy, facetious, clever, <em>Phantazmagorea</em> is more about fun than entrancement. However, it provides us with the best possible record for a genre usually much more dedicated to live and performances. This album is long, but it never gets boring. It is also much more than just a demonstration of skills. It delivers exactly what D-Styles promised at its very beginning: "the most beautiful ugly sound in the world".</p>
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