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Album Review
by SaschaS
27-10-2001
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| Beyond mental horizons |
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Dilated Peoples: 'Expansion Team'
(Parlophone)
Dilated Peoples have opened soul to hip-hop and may save the genre from clichés
The influence of Dilated Peoples’ debut, ‘The Platform’, was somewhat pre-empted by a number of singles issued beforehand that made us feel that we had already heard the best bits. It was an ace album and did have an impact, in particular drawing attention to its producer, The Alchemist, the mastermind behind its finest moments.
We now have the second instalment, 'Expansion Team', that hits the target with full force. Once you pass the intro-by-numbers of ‘Live On Stage’, quality cuts get dropped with regularity, commencing with ‘Worst Comes To Worst’, of a laidback pace, catchy melody and masterful scratching laying basis for messaging with intent.
The production is in the hands of The Alchemist, DJ Premier (his co-crew Guru makes a brief appearance to warranty mention on the sleeve notes), Da Beatminerz and many more. But, it is the basic trio of Evidence, Rakaa (Iriscience) and DJ Babu who really determine the soul and spirit to these tracks. Beats, vibes, details, rhymes are of the superior kind with decreasing number of samples.
There is darkly compelling ‘Panic’, the piano-grooved ‘Pay Attention’, the playfulness of ‘Heavy Rotation’, the funk-scented ‘Self Defense’, the dreamy ‘Dilated Junkies’ … Well, there are too many highlights to name them all. (Interesting reading is the under-tray’s ‘thank-you’ list that mentions everyone from Aaliyah via Deftones and Incubus to Zack de la Rocha. You can play a game – which artist did they miss/omit and I can draw your attention to Dr Dre, Ice Cube or NWA, collectively.)
‘Expansion Team’ is a phrase designating a new franchise in (American) sport with the newcomer being allowed to pool from ‘unprotected’ players of other teams to assemble its new squad. Dilated People have assembled ‘tones’ that continue to usurp the established order; they have certainly magicked a disc of solid-songs which is rather rare these days when stagnancy has invaded the rap-world.
This is Underground, with a capitol letter, although the band is signed to a major label. Perhaps this is the ‘nu corpo-underground’; whatever, we want more!
8.9/10
SaschaS
27-10-2001
Dilated Peoples’ ‘Expansion Team’ is released 29 October 2001 on Parlophone
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