It sounds like a recipe too lip-smacking to ignore: punk, hip-hop, bhangra and jungle (only the freshest varieties of course), all thrown in a blender with a huge creamy dollop of socio-political commentary? Oh yes please. Stick it all on full whack and as the pressure builds it's clear these modern-day musical Street Fighters are on a determined mission to rid the scene of complacent sheep-following and get things back on track. Challenging themselves both musically and lyrically, Sounds to Consume is one mean soundtrack to get you started.
Compiling their entire recorded output thus far – their much talked-about first EPs (‘Turbo’, ‘Sounds to Consume’) and their original demo, plus three blazing remixes and a video, this CD acts as an awesome introduction to these radical Mancunians. An envelope-splicing cocktail of sounds, styles and beats, it’s a lethal, dexterous romp through the future sounds of the underground, where genre boundaries are nothing but historical relics from a bygone age and inter-scene squabbling nothing more than childish message-board immaturity.
Vocalists Laila and Ben lead the pack, their raps acting as a ferocious call to arms, complementing their firebrand punk and dancefloor smoking jungle with a viciously affecting lyricism that acts as a bow and arrow strike from the lowly vision of a punk on the street to the blinkered mindset of the mainstream elite.
‘Monkey See, Monkey Do’, as such, is a sharply executed dub-hop number, railing against the media’s grip on society with a tune so concise and infectious that, should SB6 decide to spend a couple of months touring the west coast of America, they’d be turned into bona fide superstars. Until then, they could do worse than enjoy the warmly held residency they currently have on these shores. The second EP here is even more divergent, the highly charged _‘Blood For Oil’ _demonstrating a more focused, groovesome approach alongside a chorus that resounds with a typically rancorous edge.
Yet while these two EPs will have been played to death by much of their fanbase, it’s the lesser heard four-track demo included here that is the money-shot, demonstrating an early talent that most definitely holds its own against their later material. Signature tune _‘Sonic Boom Six’ _is a riotous affair, a funk-dub maelstrom that infuses a punk rock sound-base with corrosive beats, head-spinning samples, and an irrepressibly danceable vibe that reassures only too well their eminent status within the UK punk scene.
Without doubt the most vitally challenging band in underground punk today, the time for *Sonic Boom Six *to let loose their socio-political mash-up to a wider audience must surely be due.
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8Mat Hocking's Score