Maybe Tupac really DID fake his death or was beamed-up by Martians because G-LA, the lead Hip-Hopper on "Trajectory" by the new group Martian Colony [Central Park North Recordings], sure sounds a lot like him. Only this time he is accompanied on most tracks by lady Martians Remidee and Uptown if I've got it right. Wait! Now the pictures from the rover are coming in clear color! Now for the names of these extraterrestrials: In addition to G-LA and the ladies, we have bLACKy on guitar – camera shy so he is "never seen in pictures," Peso on blond bass and vocals, and Ernie with the other guitar and also chiming in background vocals.Only true Martians would have names that spell like those. ERNI says, "G-La is the lead rap artist on our record. Remidee is our live singer; she supports the group with the hook vokals. JJ o yeah he performs with us as well. Peso bass and vocals, myself ERNI guitars and beats DJ and bLACKy producer guitarist. We are New York based!" Much props from the Apple alumni.
I like the entrance to the Colony, "Let It Go," a great advice/lyrical message song – "just let loose and let it gooo." I had to take their advice and it helped me through my own difficult planetary moment! When we enter at first G-La is himself, but I hear as the disc progresses the warp factor cloning him into 'Pac.
"Many Days," cut two, gets a nice facelift treatment on the remix version, available on vinyl, even. Respect to bLACKy again by adding to my jointz collection. It doesn't labor as much as its CD cousin, and evokes a bit of Soul II Soul here, and a dash of KRS-ONE is heard here as Remidee sings "Many days and many night I wished it and I sacrificed/til this day I can't believe you're probably the one for me..."
These tracks seem to mostly mimic one another, however, with little variation until they slowed the pace a bit on "Upside yer Head" and "Can't Take it No More." That is the only break, otherwise I couldn't overcome that feeling whether I actively listened or just put it on as background . It would be interesting to feel a live crowd's reaction within the mix. On track ten they return to full Tupac mode, be it laboriously with "Destiny." There is miniscule individuality save the personal poetry.
As to where we can see and hear them he said, "We are planning to tour soon!! We are tentatively scheduled for hip-hop weekend in MIAMI!!! We are also talking to a beverage company that is very serious about a MARTIAN COLONY ENERGY DRINK!!!" I bet it will be red.
I always like to ask my subjects about the lighter side of producing music for the masses, so I asked bLACKy if they had any humerous happenstance on the way to the album, and he said, "2 funny things come to mind that happened during the recording of the album. One, at the end of the joint UPSIDE YER HEAD, the vocal was done but we could not get the engineer's attention to stop the recording! He was busy messing with the sound. So G-LA starts mimicking the guitar part-- fooling around. It sounded so cool we all jumped up pointing at him to keep going-- he was so confused by our "team" pointing that he spun around to look behind him-- and trips over a stand!! WE KEPT THE PART!!! The other funny incident was that our recording schedule got so whacked and messed up that we had to meet in a McDonald's parking lot at 2 A.M. to get beats and go over parts!! THE POLICE [did] NOT BELIEVE IT!!"
As much I vibe to my fellow New Yorkers, this is sometime a monotonous throw back to rAP days with a few exceptions. Maybe it would have been better had they released fewer tracks this time. Having said that, my opinion isn't as harsh as it sounds, and I hope to be introducing these "very professional, very serious instead of having the long, stern jaded posture [and putting] forth fun and unity" space travelers on a stage near you very soon. Three-and-a-half first time out stars.
