Burgundy Blood The Cordial Stance EP

The scene is [most probably a very drizzly] Manchester, UK. Following the slow-puncturing of the North West's greatest-never-were Hip Hop group The Idiots, one member's rap dream was to rise out of the ashes and fly, like a Herring in the mouth of a gull high over the white cliffs of Hip Hop. Of course we speak of none other than "Out To Lunch" lyricist and all round rap genius/plasterer Rod "Fully- Van-Tastic" Hotley. Like Alec Guinness in a B-Boy adaptation of Kind Hearts and Coronets, Hotley (aka Matt Raikes) grapples with multiple character performances each with a distinctive melange of classical traits. Separately these characters may seem disparate and non-sensical, but together? Together they are comparable to Freud at his most innovative, Dickie Davis at his most eloquent and Kierkegaard at his most Danish. With producers Prince Richard Weedon and Roman Moses, Raikes has been provided the backdrop to expore the human psyche over the beat of the drum and the sample of the Lancashire charity shop. Don't analyse the lyrics, let them massage your temples, let them scrub your pits, let them wash over you like Manchester Transit police attempting to remove a piece from the side of an InterCity train from Liverpool Lime Street. "Don't think with your minds, think with your ankles." advised Kool Keith when I asked him his thoughts on Burgundy Blood. Many have tried the multiple-character performance and many have failed. Raikes has tried, succeeded and dominated the genre, each in a different character. The achievement is nothing short of Ronnie Corbett.