spent a bit more time with this.
stand out tings for me:
the bruza freestyle. sheer genius: "you got a few rhymes, but you're just not ready!" ready delivered in his shouting-down-the-well style of declamation. its almost an in-built doppler effect, as though you were falling away from him in space.
riko's critical, though mainly for doogzy's hard luck stories of rummaging through the ashtray looking for unsmoked ends. been there. riko needs some more rhymes, HOWEVER, however on the DVD doing his freestyle, thats about the best bit of television ever. better TV than those panic episodes of ER when you're recoiling from the brutal drama of hellicopters falling out of the sky. LOVE LOVE LOVE the way he sucks in his cheeks, head askew and gives the full chicken-necked ragga chant. riko, what a fucking dude. i ask you! how cool is this man?
on the subject of the dvd. that is by far and away the best one i've seen. technically-speaking as well (well this sort of thing matters to me, its my job innit) the encoding is super crisp, compare it to the box bloody clever, it just makes them look like a bunch of fucking amateurs. the image quality on that was pure shite. with this you really feel your stepping into the world.
and its the same honed aesthetic that marks the music too. those tunes are beautifully produced. when you enter the studio tour section *really a treat* and get to hear targets exquisitely open-spaced flowing meshes of hollow tympani, padding tom-toms, middle-eastern accordian, forbidden-colours geijin tinkling piano spooling out into the under-lit scantily furnished offices, man its just so evocative. target is a genius, really those squidgy ultra-modern soundscapes you just want them to go on forever, but even on short tunes like....
....roll deeps chillin (another afghani-inflected masterpiece), "taliban" trim makes nuff sense in this context as moniker believe, his production is perfect. so strong!
there is a bit of padding in the middle and the pressure does drop away a bit after wileys be yourself. but its a major landmark this release. massive respekt out to target and the crew (danny weed taking a slightly less prominent position) and a huge nod to logan sama who gets just respekt from target and comes across like a serious geezer, a load more relaxed and cool than his puff-chested radio -persona. big up yourself logan.