The second lead track from Edinburgh hip-hop maestros Stanley Odd (after September’s topical ‘Son I Voted Yes’) is a sidestep from the full-on assault of their previous album ‘Reject’. ‘Pastime’ has a semi-acoustic, quite naturalistic feel to it with some neat slide guitar and a conversational feel to MC Solareye’s flow. Album ‘A Thing Brand New’ is also now out.
Between the refrain of “Sitting telling stories, just to pass the time” from female vocalist Veronica Electronica (BM salutes you madam), Solareye expresses his frustrations in life (Scotrail is among his targets!) and the experience of new fatherhood: “Known for spitting mad rhymes but home before ma baby’s bathtime” (Betty paraphrases here).
It appears to show a band confident enough of their own abilities to release something a bit more low-key, a bit more soulful and it also shows hidden depths.
Stanley Odd may not (yet) have received the (well-deserved) plaudits of the frankly incredible Young Fathers but this release shows again that the Embra hip hop scene is not a one-off. References to local issues and characters (“The Pop Cop” gets a menshie) plus a very warm overall groove makes this an absolute pleasure to review, shows already been in Aberdeen and elsewhere, and counting down to biggest (surely) headline date yet at Glasgow’s Garage in December make this a pretty good year, and long may it continue. Solareye’s defiant yet vulnerable take on life in modern Scotchland, plus his eccentric use of phrases and vocabulary makes him (for BM anyway) one of the voices of 2014 – nae danger.
RT @isthismusic: Single review – Stanley Odd – ‘Pastime’ – http://t.co/USUeptE79z @StanleyOdd
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