From the depths of Hell's Kitchen comes an artist album filled with broken beats and drum & bass inspired hooks. Their sound infuses hip-hop and drum & bass along with some straight up electrofied funk. This duo has had their creations handled by the likes of DJ Spooky, Z-Trip, Mix Master Mike and DJ Craze. Craze even used their 12"s to win his 1999 and 2000 DMC championships. This pair is also responsible for the coveted Bar Mitzvah Breaks series that has rocked the turntablist world for a long time now. After a string of releases on the San Francisco super-house label OM, they linked up with Allied records in their home of New York City.
This album instantly grabs your attention with the innovative sounds of the first track "Fish Eyes". It has a downtempo sound at first but then they switch it up to a fast-paced drum & bass beat without missing a beat. The sparsely-placed samples complement the funky scratching grooves and banging drum sounds. The song has beautiful structure and is no way held to any genre label. Moving "Back To One" the team throws out a piano-laden track with smooth vocals. At midpoint in the track they switch to a hard, pounding beat, then bring it back to a soothing close. It's like a musical journey in just five minutes. Next we find out about "50 Ft. Mole Man." This hip-hop flavored track has elements of many styles that create the Ming & FS sound. It comes complete with some funky drum sounds that are sure to shake dat ass.
Vocalist Napoleon Solo spits some hotness on the track "Starts Somewhere." The song has some horns that echo throughout and Solo's vocals go from hardcore to a harmony vocal, it's almost hard to believe it's the same person. Solo is up again on the track "Draw." He flows over some beatboxing and tells a story. Is there a thing as a hip-hop ballad? If not, then he is the pioneer. On "Big Little Jeffrey" the boys use the vocals of a junior rapper. The beat is composed of some rhythm guitar twisted up with some synth loops. The switch from drum & bass to house music keeping the same vocals and the overall feeling of the track brings you up and down within a couple of minutes.
The true house heads might shun away at the track "Skills and Grace." This track is defiantly a true hip-hop track. Don't be confused, though. Chingy, Lil Jon and P. Diddy are not hip-hop, that's pop music. This is true-to-form hip-hop music.
And regardless of what you call it, it's still full-on electronic music. Just as you might think this is a hip-hop album they bring out "Chester Goes To Town." This atmospheric drum & bass track continues on with the funky guitar riffs and if it wasn't so fast it would definitely be in the boxes of Derrick Carter and Mark Farina. Napoleon Solo appears once again on the song "2092." The beat is classic NYC hip-hop and Solo kills every verse. The track is peppered with some scratching and some spoken word samples. Bringing this album home is the track "Nadia." They switch it up once again to have a minimalist sound with some soft and delightful piano strokes. The vocals are very light and only appearing where absolutely necessary. They filter some of them to give off a dark and deep sound but the vibe of downtempo house surrounds this track.
This album is well written and produced and is a fresh face to the dance music community. Hip-hop and dance music can coexist and Ming & FS display that beautifully. Is the dance world ready for Ming & FS? We'll see ...
