Foreign Concept - Tag Team EP - Data Transmission

Label: Critical MusicScore: 7/10

Having dropped off the radar for minute, Foreign Concept marks his return to the fray with a brand new EP on Critical Music. Four cuts deep and varied in texture, crossing D&B and hip hop genre lines seeing him collaborate with the likes of Stray and New York rapper Punchline on tracks that veer a little off road to what you’d normally expect from him.

The EP title track has Manchester’s T-Man (last heard on Dub Phizix’s ‘Run It Like The President’) spit bars over a jungle drums and weighty kicks. Paper Chaser keeps the vocal theme strong as Punchline lays lyrics over a solid base of funky hip hop beats, which despite its East Coast guest MC sounds quite West Coast influenced. Stray joins in on the shuffling step of Bang It, an infectious looping vocal, busy hi-hats and warm pads set the scene before it suddenly switches on you, darkening out the dance with moody thuddering bass hits. The pick of the bunch is Solid State Dreams, minimal, brooding yet beautiful at the same time with its jazzy undertones and click pop percussion.

While nothing on here is much like his previous Critical offering like Mob Justice, its difference is its biggest asset and while it might take a couple of listens to truly get your ears round it there is some seriously good music on offer here. A nice vibe changer from Foreign Concept and it’s good to have him back.

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Grahame Farmer

Grahame Farmer’s love affair with electronic music goes back to the mid-90s when he first began to venture into the UK’s beloved rave culture, finding himself interlaced with some of the country’s most seminal club spaces. A trip to dance music’s anointed holy ground of Ibiza in 1997 then cemented his sense of purpose and laid the foundations for what was to come over the next few decades of his marriage to the music industry.