Review Kano
London Town

1. Year: 2007
2. Style: HIP-HOP
3. Rating:

Dark, aggressive and severe

Unlike their overseas colleagues British MCs enjoy a pretty modest popularity. While Hip Hop from American producers amounts to millions of albums sold worldwide, rates of British performers can hardly near the mark of 100-200 thousands. With such occupation of the market by American products one can fearlessly say that British Hip Hop scene stays almost closed for foreign consumers and therefore it lives and develops in its own trajectory. Grime is purely British sub genre; it is dark, aggressive and severe, peculiar and cold like English winter rain. For a few years of existence Grime has gradually departed from underground and transformed into ready-to-use, mature Hip Hop product, which is trying to make its way in the world. Theoretically, it has all chances to succeed and hopefully it finally will. Kano is one of the brightest representatives of the genre. His first album Home Sweet Home wasn't just an album, which made Kano popular, it was important for promotion of Grime as a separate style. The album attracted attention of a big number of popular magazines and received lots of positive views from many artists from UK and America, including Busta Rhymes, Nas and Jay-Z.

Heavy pieces and smooth insets

This year Kano continued his career with his sophomore record London Town. Stylistically he remains immersed in dark urban jungles of Grime rap. The tracks abandon with speedy rapping, breakbeats and electronic arrangements. Such tracks as The Production Of Me Environment and especially Buss It Up serve as a perfect bearers of this traits and Kano's style as a whole. He spits out phrases with unbelievable speed but compositions as such sound pretty unhurried at that. Aggression is one of the most appropriate words to describe London Town. At times songs sound simply merciless. Thus, for instance, the ending of a second track London Town remind you a peal of thunder, here Kano raps against powerful rolling beats of drums and cymbals. Kano frequently interlaces heavy peaces with melodic and smooth insets, which provides some tracks with very interesting mood. As if Kano gives his listeners a chance to take a short rest before another rap assault begins. A bundle of tracks Fightin' The Nation, Feel Free and Sleep Tight sound really diverse in this sense. In fact, London Town as an album sounds very rich and laconic at the same time, there is nothing superfluous on the album's 11 tracks; everything stands on its place.

Experimentation is not alien to Kano

London Town's good point lies in its stylistically flexible character. You can find a whole bunch of different influences here, from swaggering American Hip Hop to sweetest R&B and soft acoustic rock. Experimentation is not alien to Kano but it doesn't mean he sways from one style to another; instead, he makes a competent use of these influences and dissolves them in his own style. Just like a rap album is supposed to London Town features a number of starry cameos. But even though the guest list looks pretty modest each of them made a noticeable contribution into the way the songs sound. Thus, for example, DJ Vybz Kartel added a typical electronic atmosphere to Buss It Up, Feel Free performed with Blur's vocalist Damon Albarn wouldn't sound out of place on Gorillaz' album and participation of Craig David added bright R&B coloring to This Is The Girl. The most unexpected name on the album is Kate Nash – a songstress who became popular via MySpace. She performs chorus on Me And My Microphone, which also sounds pretty unusual. As a whole London Town sounds better than Kano's debut record. The production is more qualitative, Kano's style sounds more shaped and experiments with songs look considered and sufficiently original. In a word with this album Kano made another big step for establishment of British Hip Hop scene.