FRESH SKI & MO ROCK - THE LONG AWAITED PAROXYSM (Conscious Music Records - 1991)

This is a pretty amazing little bunch of 6 tracks and it’s another one of those rarer UK releases that I had only heard for the first time recently. Glad I managed to track it down because it’s really different and really dope.

The first thing you’ll notice is it doesn’t sound like anything else that came out in the UK at that same time. There’s no britcore styled, fast paced, air raid siren, horror theme laden tracks here. No cockney accents or Jamaican tinged ragga rapping. No frenetic DJ cutting. It’s really quite unique and if anything sits closer to the US underground sounds of the era but without actually trying to sounding American.

“The day of reckoning” kicks things off. To me the track has an old DJ Mark the 45 King feel at its roots with a futuristic and dramatic touch added to it. It’s driven by a slow, hard hitting, echoed drum track with all sorts of space sounding effects running over it (similar to those used in Mellow Man Ace’s “Hip Hop Creature”). Additionally there are bits and pieces of horns sampled into the track as well (giving it that 45 King feel) and the multi-layered noise combination is all rather wonderful. Fresh Ski stands out as a really solid MC with a slow to mid tempo flow and drops strong, clearly delivered lyrics with a UK accent that is rather subtle yet evident enough to identify the place where he dwells.

The aptly titled “Incredible” drops next. Really interesting sampling and production is the highlight of this song. It’s guided by a couple guitar sounding samples. One acts as the underlying rhythm provider for the track and the second more evident sample drops in and out in the form of a loud screechy guitar solo which sounds lovely. Another mid tempo set of beats gel it all together. Fresh Ski comes off really dope on the mic here and flows brilliantly. Okay the song may not be incredible but it's damn good !

“Mind positive” closes out Side One. Fresh Ski ups the pace of his rhyming on this track and I would say it’s the most UK influenced sounding song on the EP, without actually sounding like anyone else from the same shores. The UK touches come from a nice dubby bassline that bobs in and out of the track and that matched with slightly reggae flavoured moody horns in the chorus give it that Jamaican feel that was once so strong in UK hip hop. Having said that though, it does have that raw and sparse early DITC/45 King feel as per the rest of the EP.

What is very close to a Showbiz and AG “clap ya hands” sample starts off Side Two and “Along the Perpendicular”. Another mid tempo track with a handclap running through it from start to finish and features a really nice soul sample in the chorus with some little flute bits thrown in sporadically for good measure. Basically the track sees Fresh Ski attacking weak rappers and bigging up himself and Mo Rock’s skills which are the prevailing themes for the whole EP. Interestingly he drops a few verses about Mo Rock’s “DJ” skills yet there is little to no DJ work on this EP but in fact he seems to be selling the virtues of Mo Rock’s production and sampling skills – different perspective isn’t it?

The rather short “Spectacular Vernacular” comes next as Fresh Ski’s tribute track to his DJ. Musically this one is quite nice with slowed down Ultramagnetic type busy staggered drums with all sorts of samples on top including dark sounding squeals and sirens and people chanting. Only negative is that I would've liked to have heard some scratching from Mo Rock on this one as there's a lot of instrumental time on it but the guys seemed intent on keeping Mo as a "sampling DJ".

The EP closes out with “It’s Working”, which is probably my favourite track here. Coming at a faster tempo than the other songs this one has raw live sounding drums and interestingly the sampling is kept to a bare minimum as the drums essentially provide the bulk of the soundtrack for the song and the stripped back feel of the track rings of lovely raw old school flavour. Fresh Ski comes more hyped up on the mic here yet retains his solid controlled tempo and delivery. Great track to finish off this little showcase.

It’s really a nice dope EP and as mentioned was quite different to the normal UK fare of its generation. If you like that golden era production by the 45 King and enjoy artists such as Class A Felony and the Funkytown Pros and want to hear their styles with a slight UK flavour then your tastes would be very well served by this EP. In fact just get it anyway if you like quality hip hop full stop.