Penpushers - Poltergeeks

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 27 / 11 / 2006

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If you can name more than three Scottish hip-hop groups you’re a better man than me. But here are the Penpushers – an Edinburgh collective – back again to try and show us there are decent breakbeats further north than Leeds. On their latest album they succeed in this only occasionally. At their best –on tracks like ‘Fairy Press’ – they come on with a pared-down, almost spoken word take on hip hop reminiscent of Buck 65 filtered through Edinburgh’s pavements. They also have a suitably atmospheric and moody set of creepy, sampled instrumentals akin of DJ Shadow in his more film soundtrack moments. Unfortunately at other points it sounds like a lo-fi recording of a bunch of mates in a Leith pub having a laugh. The short joke-tracks ‘Broken Man’ and ‘Goodman Speakers are Shit!’ seem to be the Penpushers’ answer to the tedious skits that litter most rap albums. They are as un-involving as the majority of those. Equally space-wasting – and unfortunately not as short – are the tracks where guest female vocals have been laid over promising ingredients, the one mistake that ruins your dining pleasure. This is worth seeking out if you have an interest in off the wall rap. Fans of Dr Octagon for instance will find shadowy echoes of that crazed inventiveness here. But this seems unlikely to set up Edinburgh as the new East Coast just yet.

Track Listing:-

1 Hero Today Gone Tomorrow
2 Forever Miscellaneous + Misunderstood
3 Fear Not The Accusations of A Thousand Index Fingers...
4 Broken Man
5 Fairy Press
6 Breathe Deeply
7 Silicon Infants
8 Fair Weather Friend
9 Goodman Speakers Are Shit!
10 Mermaids Tail
11 Victim of a Car Crash
12 Poltergeeks

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