Infinite Sounds UK: August 2017

SHADOW OF THE LUNATIC

PLANET OF THE FAKES

Review by Steve Rider (Infinite Sounds)

It is not very often that you are given a chance to listen to an album before its release and rarer still to be able to review it as well but, to be first person to hear that album and review it outside of those whom recorded it is something special. I am humbled to be that person and so, I hope that this review can live up to that.

The Fakes are no strangers to hardcore tracks and have given us some outstanding Hip Hop over the years. They even gave us some awesome freebies over the Xmas period. What more could you want?

“A Dope Album” I hear you say. Well, aren’t you all lucky because, for the last four years, Inzaine, Mr Morph, Sinista and Mr.Tibbz have been working on the forthcoming ‘Shadow of the Lunatic’ album. So, when I was given the chance, by Mr.Tibbz, to give the album a listen and a review prior to its release, I said to myself “Fuck yeah.”

All I had to do was give it a listen and come up with something in less than two weeks. What could I do? That was easy, I stopped fucking around and started to see what all the fuss was about and what all you Hip Hop heads out there have been waiting on....

The album crackles into life with [SIC] like its being played through some World War 2 armed forces radio. Interspaced with Kura’s deft cuts, you are presented with an audible hook that is dangling a long awaited vinyl worm.

Following [SIC], Sicker than Sick finds the Fakes, with DJ Kura, on top form with an opening track which shreds your eardrums. The Drama’s Here follows next, tearing your senses apart as the Fakes, Gambit and DJ Tones ensure you are kept held at vinyl gunpoint.

Next in the chamber is Re-Ignite the Mic. This track is an audible fragmentation grenade crafted expertly by the Fakes accompanied by Kid Lyrical, Alikazam, Exile and Iceski with cuts handled by DJ Highfly. With the Mic and your ears now aflame, Def Intellect follows next. Don’t let the comical intro and slightly slower speed of this track fool you. The minute you do this one will sneak up on you. The Fakes will hold you down while DJ Tones cuts you up.

But, the Lunatic is waiting and lets in the Intruders. The Fakes and DJ Tones stalk you and draw you well and truly into the shadow of the Lunatic.

From the shadow creeps forth the Proper Nuttas. Blades joins the Fakes here picking up where the last track left off and with DJ’s Tones, Kura and Morph on the cuts, there is no room for censorship here.

Now is the Rise of the Lunatic and the Fakes are in your head. You begin to question just who is the lunatic? Suddenly, familiar breaks hit you so hard that you think they’re From Another Planet. Cuts are interplanetary from Suicide Petch and the Fakes take on journey from one side of the galaxy to the other.

There is no time to recover because at 0.5 past light speed the sirens hit and you’re caught well and truly in the jaws of the Rhyme Animal. Chewed up and spat out, you wonder if you can truly survive? But, the Fakes have the answer. DJ Morph and the Fakes inject you with huge Dose of the Lethal to bring you back from the brink.

As you sit wondering what the fuck just happened? DJ Kura is back with the Fakes to bring you down from your Hardcore Hip Hop mind fuck. In these last few seconds you realise that in a world full of pain where the power hungry seek to keep you down. There is only one answer and starts here because, You are the Resistance.

I hope this really helps put across how this sounded in its first play? Perhaps this is how a Jedi or a Sith get into your head?

This truly is dope album in every sense of the word. But, words are even hard to find to describe it. The production by Inzaine is truly fucking awesome and the Planet of the Fakes are truly on top form. Even the artistry by Mr.Tibbz for the cover just seems to fit exactly what this album is about.

It is hard to find fault with this album and mean that from the very depths of my being. I don’t like finding fault and indeed I am not going to here. My only gripe is that it is simply too short and I wanted more, much more.

My initial thought’s, when I wondered how to describe this album, took me back to the days when Blade, Hijack and Gunshot ruled the UK Hip Hop Airwaves. Those were the days when we knew the UK had sound, energy and roughness the US could not clone. Now, those days are creeping back out of the shadows but, keeping a foot squarely in the Underground.

With Shadow of the Lunatic, the Planet of the Fakes has put the Hip Hop world on notice. In the Shadows the Lunatic goes unseen building on hard work and dedication and bringing you an instant underground classic.