JEDI MIND TRICKS - Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell - 2006 - Album review
BOMBTRACKS: Put Em in the Grave - Suicide - When all Light Dies - Serenity in Murder - Gutta Music
SOUNDBITE: /But Vinnie rap like when fifty fuckin' Kurds attack/ Who your group Daddy, I ain't never heard of that/
RATING: 4/5
Jedi Mind Tricks musically inhabit a similar dark, dank, graffitied alleyway to those other cheerful b*stards Non-Phixion and Gravediggaz - the CIA waiting at one end to terminate them with 'extreme prejudice' for their Bush-baiting lyrics while pimps, crackheads and psychotic prostitutes wait at the other to f*ck them up them just to see what it looks like. Not that JMT sound bothered. Rapper Vinnie Paz sounds pretty hard to me - he probably has a broken bottle for a snack at elevenses or something and sounds a bit like the RZA might if you woke him up after only a few hours sleep to tell him that there won't be any skunkweed available for the week. JMT do a nice line in violin/mandolin/balalaika (one, two or possibly all three of these) and piano loops - which is a refreshing change from the horns, wah-wah guitar and Hammond organ territory I usually inhabit. In this sense they reminded me of Chicago geniuses All Natural (what the f*ck happened to them?) but they have the beefy beats and production of DJ 'Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind' (Kevin Baldwin to his mum) which recalls some of the more bludgeoning moments on Non-Phixion's 2002 drop 'The Future is Now' and, indeed, former Non-Phixion rapper Ill Bill guests on the Wagnerian 'Heavy Metal Kings'. While we're talking metal - the band wisely leave the frankly ridiculous crossover track 'Black Winter Day' to the end of the LP. Highlights on the other hand are fairly plentiful. The pianos and strings together with a fairly self-explanatory title on 'Put Em in the Grave' open the album and give it the operatic air of a Mafia don's funeral. The next track is the one that actually persuaded me to part with my money and goes by the jolly title of 'Suicide' - it's driven by an uptempo beat and a beautiful loop of one of the aforementioned stringed instruments being plucked. Other tracks of note include 'When all Light Dies' with it's two catchy vocal loops one of which sounds like Edith Piaf on helium, the doomy 'Serenity in Murder' and 'Gutta Music' featuring Chief Kamachi and Reef The Lost Cauze. Christ it must be happy in Philadelphia. I'm off to sacrifice some babies for Halloween.
Listen to Jedi Mind Tricks 'Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell'
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