Karl Phillips & The Midnight Ramblers – Karl Phillips & The Midnight Ramblers Every once in a while you hear an album and think, this is the one. It is a very rare occurrence. Sometimes it may be the new LP from your favourite band. At others it may be the emergence of an artist so similar, or completely aloof, from the music you love to chill out too.
Karl Phillips & The Midnight Ramblers expertly entwine the fierce and lively riffs of ska with the “don’t give a fig” attitudes and aggressive lyrical styles of hip hop with some dashes of punk and grime thrown in for good measure.
Lyrically it’s one of the more vibrant and down-to-earth masterpieces heard in a long while. Phillips states that he was “never really in to music” so where he developed his lyrical style beggars belief. Witty and quick, his tracks regularly garner a smile, a little snigger which gains a few strange looks on the bus.
It is one of the most honest assessments of 21st Century Britain you could ever ask for and there hasn’t been an album more in touch with modern strife since The Holloways released So This Is Great Britain? in 2006.
Whether sending out messages to his rivals in Wellingborough and Brighton or discussing everyday male population disasters such as spilling another’s pint down your local, this LP speaks to Average Joe.
As Linkin' Park and Jay Z proved, there is just something a little bit special about rapping over the top of rock. These guys prove that theory further. If you do nothing else this week, get a copy of the track Danger H (Or Harold To His Mother). This, coupled with the rest of the album, will blow you away.
LEIGH SANDERS Rating: 5/5
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