The most apposite description of Scorcher's production showcase 'The Movement Presents Thunder Power' is that it's a curate's egg (always wanted to use a cliche inspired by a 19th-century Punch cartoon for an album with song titles like 'Fuck Off Officer', 'I Learned to Rob' and 'Still Move Work'). When it's good it's absolutely blinding, when it's bad it's fucking terrible (I'm mainly thinking of the r'n'b joints here). Highlights include previously-released gems such as Ghetto's hyper-adrenalised 'Menace' ('I do music, shot and still claim benefit') and Devlin's frankly beautiful 'Actual Artist', but also Bashy's typically intricate 'London Underground', Wretch 32's utterly banging 'Play With My P's', and Terminator's other-worldly '05'.
DIGRESSION:
I really used to think Terminator was the worst MC I had ever heard (admittedly, this was before I'd heard DSR's 'Throwback Song'), but now his appearances make me smile like the return of an old friend. Discarda has also recently undergone a similar trajectory of re-evaluation.
END OF DIGRESSION.
Anyway, as someone who counts 'Diplomatic Immunity' as one of my Top 10 albums of all time I'm probably the last person to offer objective analysis of this album given the Pavlovian head-banging response that Dipsetesque beats still provoke within me. Although Scorcher invites such comparisons by recycling samples used by the Dips themselves (Wretch's 'Never Argue' uses the same as Cam'ron and Juelz's 'You Outta Know', Revolver's 'Rest In Peace' jacks Verdi's 'Anvil Chorus' like 'Santana's Town' and every Soviet propaganda film I remember from GCSE history did), the album's high points occur when he is able to combine grime influences with the Heatmakerz template (squealing guitars, hi-hats like a Parkinson's sufferer on a hot tin roof) to create music with the visceral nature the title suggests.
The absolute pinnacle of the album occurs with the appearance of Wiley, and its fair to say that it was listening to this track on the way to and from work for about a fortnight that inspired this blog. The track begins with what will probably go down as one of my favourite moments in music this year, when after a few scene-setting adlibs Wiley mimics the beat by going 'derr nerr nerr derrrrrrrrrr' in the style of a hyperactive kid singing the riff to himself whilst legging it to the shops. After that we get a standardly brilliant Wiley pop culture tangent:
I'm a Karate Kid like Daniel LaRusso,
Crane Kick, anywhere go I see 'em try and do the same kick,
and the Crane Kick ain't even my main kick,
my lyrics are like kicks from Van Damme,
swinging in the rain with 8 pricks,
none of them are swingers in the Matrix,
his wife's got a link to the matrix,
I've said too much and I hate this
He then sends a subtle shot in the direction of a member of the very crew whose mixtape he's appearing on 'newcomers do what their mates did.... hold tight them man, I still can't see ya' before once again subjecting his legendary ex-mate God's Gift to a carefully crafted barrage as he remixes his own bars in a torrent of nimble spitting honed by years of pirate radio:
I've been away for a minute,
got swayed for a minute,
I was in the hood selling cocaine for a minute,
sent for God's Gift but he didn't wanna spray for a minute,
his heart weren't in it but I'm in it to win it,
I got past it, Will's got no limits,
win wars with fists and guns, knives and gimmicks,
your last hit was donkeys years old,
I'm not suprised that you still sing it,
I carry weight like Carribean Joseph,
top boy, what boy? everybody knows it,
them man are lucky I never had the strap 'cos I swear to God I would have emptied the whole clip,
I'm like Spragga Benz, I'm fully loaded,
most man in the game lost it they eroded,
I'm roamin', I'm E3 area-codin',
and I didn't flop in the game like Jerome did
The last verse contains a typically thrilling Eski-welter of unlikely celebrity namechecks, urgent and justified self-mythologising, an obsession with the transmission system of vehicles (as witnessed on 'He's Too Much' from Tunnel Vision Volume 2, his 2nd dub for Dizzee and by Scorcher on the Wiley-guesting 'Red Light'), familial tribute and a brief reminder of his mastery of one-line flows:
You see the level I'm on you wouldn't last long,
'cos I'm on the moon like Neil Armstrong,
I was the first one, I'll be the last one,
you're too lazy,
wanna be a star in the hood come and ask one, (hello Tinch)
what it's like really,
sittin' in the top everybody wants to try and pull a fast one,
so i step off the top spot,
want some advice from a legend?
(love the next three lines)
I wrote this bar at midnight O7 January 1st,
I learnt to drive manually first,
me and my sound we were angry first,
if shots are getting bust I'm like 'can we' first,
used to like school but I kept getting kicked out,
what about music? bring a few hits out,
I've got it in me, Mum, Dad, brother too,
plus I didn't want to be the one who missed out
red = my words.
So there you go, the anatomy of an MC at the top of their game like Fabregas. Go and buy Scorcher's album, you'll find it irresistible to avoid pumping it out of a car window at an anti-social volume. And I'll be back with more overly-in depth analysis of Wiley next week.
peace x
