Artiste: Foreign Exchange
Album: Connected
Spotlight Track: The Answer
Label: BBE
Producer: Nicolay aka Matthijs Rook
Executive Producer: Phonte Coleman
Now I definitely wouldn’t qualify myself as connoisseur of the NU-sound- a purveyor of unsubstantial b-lines and mathematical beats. I have always preferred the raw! That’s possibly why I just discovered this 2004 release by Foreign Exchange- a collaboration between Dutch producer Nicolay & one half of American hip-hoppers Little Brother, Phonte.
Firstly it’s pretty damn amazing that the two key individuals involved in the production of this LP only met each other when they were going on tour to promote the release of this album. All music production was handled by Nicolay in Holland (these Dutch buggers can play bola and produce tunes as elegantly as Van Basten), sent to Phonte in the US electronically where he laid the vocals., then back to Holland again for engineering and mastering by Nicolay and *Voila!* a complete and solid album for your listening pleasure. Of course like all predominantly hip-hop-soul albums of our era there are a number of other collaborators like Big Pooh (other half of Little Brother) and this killer vocalist Yahzarah, but the stand-out of this album is the sublime production, instrumentation and arrangement of Nicolay.
If you could imagine the beat production of Mitsu, the musicianship of Matt Cooper of Outside fame, and of course, the complete packaging and finish of a BBE product. Ideal for those solo days refurbishing your fish tank, banging out the BBQ and beers with your lads on lazy Sundays or warming yourself up for a night out.
A number of really outstanding cuts on this album including the Foreign Exchange Title Theme, yup, they hit you with the madness from the get go with killer vocal arrangements and the by-line, “Thank you for the music”. Raw Life which is a masterpiece of gelling West Coast gangsta and European production class is another stand out.
The track I have chosen to Spotlight though is The Answer. Great ambient sound you rarely hear in hip hop, nice rolling bass riff, quality beat making and they flip it with some great lyricism and delivery topped off with a typical chanting B-boy chorus. Kena la I tell you.
The CD version has a few bonus tracks and remixes which are definitely worth a listen and do look out for the instrumental album which I believe dropped not too long ago as well.
Tangkap This!!!
-Josh aka DJ Escobar
