I've never been a big fan of compilations or EP length "albums" as they always left me wanting more. Whilst the Joining Forces compilation from Germany falls into both tease inducing categories, i've always rated it as one of the better items in my music collection.
Early 90's German hip hop was, for the most part, raw, fast, aggressive, hardcore and often more "britcore" sounding than the product from the UK itself. Just the way i like my rap music and just why this release is mostly fantastic.
Right from the outset the high speed rhyme attack begins with the legendary No Remorze and their first offering on this collection "Complaint to those who sold out hip hop". The title is exactly what the song is about and "no sellout" is almost the number 1 slogan for the hardcore hip hop fraternity and the message has great significance to those of us who can't stand the nasty commercialism that exists in hip hop. The song kicks off straight away with a sped up Hijack style beat and absolutely lovely frenzied scratching by DJ Stylewarz and DJ Kaos (yes 2 of them!). Crak's rhymes are rapid fire and he has a great rrrrolling sound to his letter "R" which seemed to be a rather common trait of quite a few German MC's at the time - whether the result of their English pronounciation or intentionally done i'm not sure - but damn, it sounds good. Anyway pretty much a perfect track and one of my classic all time cuts.
Up next we have Fast Forward with "Dark Dawn". The intro of the track creates a feeling of being out in a dark forest in the middle of the night with sounds of crickets/cicadas buzzing away (which is certainly not the kind of thing you'd normally hear sampled for a rap track) and horror movie sounds and this continues throughout the song and adds the perfect dark ambience to the song. The song itself is another high tempo track with pretty much a simple breakbeat played at upper BPM's coupled with some nice DJ work and the MC going for broke on top of it. If i'm honest he's not up to the standards of Crak at this pace and i have to listen very carefully to understand a lot of his lyrics but the voice itself does sound good (and he's far from the only MC i struggled to comprehend over the years haha).
Holding down spot three is F.E.W.D with "Retaliation". Can't say i ever heard of these guys before or after this compilation but they bring it nicely here. With a slower tempo and catchy rolling bassline this one leans slightly more towards the funky side of things but still rocks hardcore enough. Decent MC's and interestingly enough the second MC on this track sounds very British and actually sounds like a non-ragga Rebel MC. Politically tinged track touching on subjects of poverty, governments etc. "It's never too late to retaliate".
The German language (which i can't understand) track "Amazoon Chainsaw Massacre" from Rude Poets kicks off next. I guess they meant "Amazon" instead of spelling it "Amazoon" ? From what i can tell by the few English spoken samples throughout this it's actually an environmentally themed song discussing the devastation caused by deforestation and logging - top marks to them, if this is the case, for delivering such a unique and important concept in a rap song. Anyway all lyrical content guessing aside, it's a brilliant track musically with alarm sounds, fast and busy dramatic beats and beat changeups with the MC's dropping rugged rhymes in German. The great MC Scope is featured on this track.
A total change of pace comes at us next with F.E.W.D's "Mr Brown" which relies heavily on the Bob Marley track of the same name. Although i always found this track to be somewhat out of place on this compilation i really can't front on liking it because it is catchy as hell and i love the original Marley song that it takes from. Again the UK sounding MC shows off his English skills very nicely and the rhyme is basically a tale about a shady anonymous character named "Mr Brown" and that he could be you, me or your next door neighbour.
Back to the hardcore attack and we find the 2nd track from Fast Forward being "Punitive Expediton". Another raw, reasonably pacey beat with the MC flowing and flowing for 5 minutes with only short pauses between verses. Overall rather similar to the "Dark Dawn" track - which is not a bad thing because a whole album of tracks like these would've been great (unfortunately the later Fast Foward full LP was rather patchy and disappointing).
No Remorze bring forth some guitar sounds on their well known "Dark Malice" cut. I can't remember for sure but i think the guitars sampled in this one are from Led Zeppelin and they suit Crak and No Remorze's style very well. Add to these guitars the Funky Drummer break, Crak's aggressive angry rhymes, air raid type sirens, the DJ's cutting up s**t and you have one of the classic hardcore rap songs - no more, no less.
Finishing out this collection is a group known as The Musical Punishment with "Pass the Judgement" (and it's instrumental). A rather messy song with softly recorded vocals sitting behind a bluesy guitar sample resting far too offbeat behind the break. Some might find this song creative, abstract and clever but for me this doesn't really work. The MC is quite capable but i'd love to hear him over a more well structured track.
So aside from the finale this album/EP is a great combo of mostly hardcore German tracks and would definitely serve as a great introduction to those looking to get a taste of how "hardcore UK influenced German hip hop" sounds.
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