Terra Slim – Sell Out

Terra Slim – Sell Out

Genre: UK Hip-Hop, Grime, Dubstep

For Fans Of: Dizzee Rascal

Stand Out Track: Sell Out

Rating: 6

Trying to sell your CD on the beach to hoards of tanning Brighton beach goers that have never heard of you may not be the best form of marketing, however this is how Terra Slim and Underground Reviews collided and having originally set my sights quite low for this piece of work, I was presently surprised.

The main track of the EP is the title, 'Sell Out' with track 2 being a clean mix for radio edits and an instrumental track 3 presumably for DJ mixing. Terra, or using his alias 'T-Rah the negroid poet' engulfs the London grime sound with some authentic and charged raps about life in the suburbs. His raps flow naturally priding itself on its authenticity, rapping about money, drugs, girls and and self assertion acting obviously as a great form of therapy and cleansing for the rapper and anyone who's interested. And as is always the case, some of it ain't pretty but thus is the life.

Sonically there is one major flaw, throughout the CD there are certain points where the master levels all jump radically up for period and then back down only to repeats. Just watch out for this if you already happen to be pumping the tracks, you may get a nasty shock.

Terra's been working around the scene for the last 10 years which has seen him play many venues around Europe. He's got the rapping and the music down, he now just needs to focus on his production, image and marketing... Listening to your CD for faults before you decide to sell them is key here.

Underground

Sleeping Panda Presents:

Sleeping Panda Presents

The Hobgoblin

Friday 8^th April 2011

Pesto

Brighton Alternative rockers Pesto were the opening band to greet us to the forthcoming event. Unfortunately their Pixies and Violent Femmes style of indie punk came across as slugishly boring through a coherent lack of ideas and development in their songs. 

The band must collectively be rocketing towards their 30's which is sad when you consider how little they have musically accomplished. Their songs followed a simple formula with the bass player rarely moving away from straight crotchet rhythms as well as believing that giving a good vocal performance is just as easy as shouting into the mic.

The biggest problem with this band is they just lack an agenda. They were confusing to watch. Why was the bass player wearing eye liner more suited towards a drag and rag night down some seedy bar of the sea front. It's harsh but it's true, there is to many rubbish bands in this town and Pesto well and truly fit that criteria.

Barking Toad

Missing the very opening of their set, walking back into the gig I swear I could hear the tired wrangling of a bed room shredder. But no. There it was in all it's glory. A 3 piece hardcore band finished off with a guy freaking out on the sax. 

In contrast to the last act, Barking Toad completely took me by surprise. Their sound consisted of heavy doom like drum patterns with distorted bass playing chords to fill out the sound with enough Sax squeals and roars to shake a shitty stick at. Imagine it like a more subtle Dillinger with a 1 man avant-garde contemporary horn section. It's a band like this that really stands out on such a night which is a hard thing to do on this circuit.

But once the initial shock of such a radical and unexpected line up wore off, their music proved to be interesting and captive affair that kept my interests intact.

CB6

CB6 very quickly assert themselves as the headline band. Their stage show and music has a higher degree of professionalism and development than the acts before them. They make good use of space surrounding them at credit to their confidence, a band with an obvious amount of experience under their belts.

Their sound shows a wide variety of influence. They're delivery had that 'take no prisoners' Punk attitude, like a less sell-out version of Rise Against but with other elements of Hardcore, Thrash and even Death Metal.

Hailing from Southend the band are currently supporting their self titled EP (to be later reviewed) and are a band to be watched, being able to seemingly merge into this towns Metal scene.

Sleeping Panda put on a wide pallet of musical variety tonight that both shocked and rocked. The fairly new promotors on the scene are now beginning to take on their own stride and are shaping themselves out as something different amongst the scene. Underground Reviews are looking forward as to what we can expect over the Summer months.

Underground

*For Photo's get in contact with the Underground Reviews Team at: undergroundreviews@live.co.uk

Defective by Design - Colour In a Black And White World

Defective by Design - Colour In a Black And White World

Genre: Alternative

For Fans Of: Oceansize, Incubus, Reuben, Placebo

Stand Out Track: I'm A Cynic

Rating: 7.5

With their launch party last month at the Pav Tav proving a success, DBD have added a great new product onto the scene. Now the Summer months are approaching fast, this EP will prove invaluable for any Brightonian that has their ear to the floor on the local music scene. 

The vocals of Eoin O' Toole are the driving element of the EP and show a wide range of diversity. His vocals are quite bizarre in places sounding similar to Brian Molko of Placebo with that wobbly vibrato thing going on. The vocals have enough originality in them to have character and distinction without tacking it to the unbearably extreme lows, that some of the more painfully alternative scene-sters around town seem to enjoy... no names mentioned of course.

The band itself sound great together, building their energy and dynamics in turn to Eoin without over playing. The high point for me being the heavy section of 'I'm a cynic', bringing in some meat and potatoes on the riff and some extra vocal dirt. All in all the drama of the songs gives the music relevance rather than just being a collection of incoherent jams.

The recording sounds great with every instrument coming out the speakers clearly and definitively. However I wish the drums were slightly more in your face, to go with that modern New York trend that every wannabe Drum N' Bass Indie producer creams themselves for. The Bass as well could sound a bit more full bodied, though both these points are just for nick picking's sake.

The title track of the EP can be heard for free here but for any of you that still hold value in music it is now available on Itunes or from the band directly. But to really see the band in action, they're next whoring out their sexy bodies on the local scene at The Hope on the 22^nd of April.

Underground

To get your CD reviewed or to get a member of our team to review your gig contact us at: undergroundreviews@live.co.uk