The Criminal Minds - Tales from the Wasteland 12" EP (TCM Recordings 1991)

“Tales from the Wasteland” seems to be one of the most revered and sought after of all hardcore golden era UK releases, at least in recent years, and it’s no wonder why as it is pretty amazing (in fact I’m reviewing this from mp3’s as I’ve always struggled to find the original and if you can find it, it costs a fortune nowadays).

“Systems Overload” is the first track here and it opens with a very applicable spoken sample stating “what they’re getting this time is even harder and heavier and it’s gonna blow their brains out”. The rapid, thundering beats then drop and DJ Halo gets to work instantly cutting up “fuck your system”. We then hear one of the greatest MC’s of all time grab the mic, ie. MC Iceski. He has such a unique voice which actually seems to echo and resonate with every word delivered thanks to what could be double or triple tracking of his voice but it may just be the natural power in his voice and the way it drops, whatever it is I just can’t get enough of it. Delivering a nice contrast to Iceski here is Safe D with a slight ragga touch to his deep tones and the combination of these two is really something special. The dark and dramatic production on this track reminds me of Silver Bullet’s “20 Seconds to Comply” and that is a very, very good thing. As the lyrics here describe, the goal of this song is to make your “Systems Overload” from the sonic speaker smashing barrage of noise and it is most definitely “mission accomplished”. More simply, it’s classic britcore – no more, no less.

“Illegal Procedure” starts off with very much in the vain of PE “Nations of Millions” album (albeit a shorter scaled down version) with TCM taking an excerpt from a live gig of theirs and using it to intro the track. Once the song starts it’s another noisy, hyper britcore assault with cool almost Hendrix sounding electric guitars sitting at some depth beneath the more apparent rapid beats. Iceski is rapping at top speed on this one and is impressive as always and he also shares mic duties with another MC on this track, this time it’s CMD instead of Safe D. I quite like the roughness and fast pace to CMD’s flow and after they get a verse each, the 3rd verse sees CMD and Iceski put on a great display of my much loved line for line, back and forth, mic passing. There’s also some stunning DJ skills on show here again from Halo with an especially catchy section where he cuts up the “C to the R to the I M” and also the last minute of the track is an awesome display of DJ prowess.

The very dramatic sounding “Tales from the Wasteland” appears next. It’s has a dramatic, epic intro which starts with ominous sounding violin strings which get boosted after 30 seconds when hard punchy beats kick in which are backed by absolutely tremendous DJ cutting. Iceski then comes into the song with his deliciously raw rhyme style which sits on top of booming breaks with undertones of the dark strings from the intro continuing throughout. Actually I REALLY LOVE the drums on this, they really HIT, attack and wack you right in the chest and listening to them is probably somewhat akin to being in the ring taking fists from Ali in his heyday – the way they hit left, hit right, jab and uppercut is phenomenal and there is nothing in hip hop these days like this. Iceski is pretty much solo here (aside from a brief interjection from one of the other guys) and I don’t even need to mention again that he rides the track superbly!

“Prepare for the Holocaust” closes things out and somewhat accordingly brings a different sound to the table, a sound which can almost be described as “electro reggae” or perhaps “slowed down jungle”. It’s probably not so different for TCM though as they did dabble in this sound from time to time and it’s not a bad thing as I quite dig this style, although structurally it’s a less complex track than others and is my least fav on the EP. No different however is Iceski’s flow as he brings his relentless rhyming yet again and he seems to rip any type of track he’s on with ballistic ease and there seems to be no 2nd gear for him, it’s go all out or nothing.

As is I wrote at the outset, this is one of UK hip hop’s rarest and most wanted classics and hopefully I’ve given some indication as to why. Iceski is really the star of the show here and thankfully the production, co-MC’s and DJ work aren’t left behind by his amazing skills, instead they add up to make a perfect hardcore hip hop package. It’s a shame that artists like this never had the chance (or inclination?) to release full albums during the glory days of UK hip hop as a full album of material like this from 1991 by TCM would have been something truly incredible. As Safe D said “some people call it wicked, you can call it hardcore”. WORD.