I'M LISTENING TO THE CEX ALBUM NOW

Its real good. I reckon this is probably the best way to write a review. And anyway the best thing about the internet is there is no quality control

I don't have to listen to it a hundred times before going hmmm. Its like x produced by y on z drug if a never existed being shagged by b. etc.

So far I'm reckoning Broadway Project, Tarwater, Buck 65 and an unhealthy touch of Linkin Park- Fuck this boys never been perfect and doesn't he know it. When he wants to he can sound like a bi-polar teenaged Mozart making tip-top-chop-shop-lap-top-hip-pop.

But then theres that Emo thing.

I mean fuck- how dumb does a music industry / country have to be to have to give a title to "emotional" punk / hardcore etc. As opposed to what exactly? I don't know how deep the Emo thing goes and whether I could listen to the real merits of the music without gagging on the crap name I mean I fucking LOVE the Postal Service and their lead singer is from Death Cab For Cutie- who I hear are an emo band. But earnest pop-punk about "issues"- I'd rather listen to hardcore as stupid as "Guilty of being White" by Minor Threat, any day. Now Fugazi, they made songs about word puzzles and dead actors and have faith in their audiences emotional maturity. Emo is a fucking gypo name. seriously.

But of course CEX- like the rest of the Tigerbeat mob is happy to use titles to provoke wrath. I mean the fact that they haven't erected a flaming effigy of whichever nitwit hack cam up with the odious term IDM ( a title for those who really do like to dance to architecture) outside their office smacks of collusion to this zealot . They'd probably call themselves BinLadenkiddyfucker6 if they could.

So Cex doesn't like Emo after all phew. But then there's a whole lot of brooding narcisstic melancholy over tricky guitars. hmm.

He's just mentioned Britney Spear's. Maybe he's like a sort of Eminem for people with A-levels.

I bought his album after a recommendation from Adam Alphabet: another odd white boy fucking with the hip hop program with his crew "Crack Village". Damn the only authenticity is inauthenticity now- seeing these crazy fuckers pace around in Minotaur/Devil/Pan costumes and so forth spitting out lyrics like "Bada bosh bosh bosh bosh bosh bosh bosh boooosh" Is always going to be a better cheap date than watching some Ecko-d ponce nodding his head and whinging about the "industry". Most of them cats are fucking Robbie Williams in Fubu. CEX is, discounting Chilly G- who sometimes appears that he could have existed sixty years before Bambataa, the MC with the strongest grasp on the absurd and the loosest on the dichotomy 'tween performer and persona. There's a song on the album called "Cex at arm's length" I could worry about this boy.

A lovely song about marriage- real proper CEX- lunatic lyrics, bouncy skitterry back grounds and a flip over to the B-Side.

More loveliness.

But whats really good about this package is that it comes with a bonus instrumental disc. On most Hip-Hop vinyl doublepacks this is a complete waste of time. Tedious instrumentals that crash and burn without the propulsion of lyrics. Here however it is vital and I really think that I will probably listen to the instrumental album more- at home and "In the club". Not to say that the lyrics are unnecessry- it's just that there's so many damn ideas in each track that listening to this version is the only way your really going to learn to love this album. Thaen try the lyrical one.

Right he's singing again on brer rjan. No this is definately Rival school's United by Fate style. So a difficult one then. But the holy grail for those of us for whom Fog and Buck 65 were just accessible entry-points into a post hip-hop netherworld.

His web diary is at www.riyan.com when you go there say hi from me- i'm kind of shy.