Eaters - Wives

The dilemma of colloquial hip-hop is trying to add something to an already heaving genre, and to represent who you are without seeming parochial. What accent to rap in? Which subjects to cover? The danger that many Scottish hip-hop artists face is in seeming one dimensional, that the music will not matter outwith the borders of its culture. Eaters sit atop the accent and subject fence, sporting an uneasy mid-Atlantic twang, unwilling to truly assert their own identity. Gurning, industrial beats are flat and lack any energy, and only two-thirds through does the first catchy boom-bap beat occur. Some overtly stoner topics - Double Life of the Monkey Men - coupled with some b-movie samples and the dark horns of Deformities leave matter for fleeting interest, but there is a conspicuous absence of focussed lyrics to a point of poetic note, the Immaculate Caption often eludes Eaters here. [Jamie Scott]