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Sassy, soulful, funky - original and deep, but above all bumping music that will stand up proud aside the classics of Erykah Badu, Madlib, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jay Dilla, Sa Ra, even Nick Martinelli's eighties' production. Expect to see Pursuit Grooves more than hold her own amongst a too hot to handle select group of likeminded musics in 2010: dig the new breed of auteurs for hot buttered beats - Fly Lo, Kyle Hall, Ras G, Actress, Cooly G, Shuanise, Nosaj Thing, Illum Sphere...
'Pressure' drops like a lost Badu & Madlib collaboration, Miss Smith's vocal here is even a little reminiscent of Erykah's considerable stylings and watch out girlfriend, she flows with the best in a style somewhat similar to Bahamadia.'Start Somethin' rocks the downtempo beatdown harder than most, and is the most electronic feeling cut on this album - vicious fuzz basslines, filthy claps, oiled snares and block-rocking cut-up beats. Drop this in a dj set and watch all crew get busy. If you had to pick a single highlight then 'Shabaps' might well be it. A heavyweight hip hop roller, all luscious bass frequencies and cosmic synth drifts, that keeps an upful tempo for maximum bugging fully on lockdown. 'Whisper' dubs it heavy like a feather, all bubbling Mantronik style 808 beats with melting jazz piano drops and sweetly mysterious, softly spoken vocal. 'Tweezers' adds a 2-step electro flex to an LA / Detroit hip hop feel - mind blowing stuff on headphones, only still built for the biggest systems. 'Mister Softee' is perhaps the most traditional sounding hiphop cut - turn out the lights because the delivery here is world class '010, we reach the outro refreshed by a cooling breeze on a mad hot summer day.
Altogether it makes the best soundtrack to midnight inner-city motoring and yet will work brilliantly at beats driven club situations with its effortless production science to the fore. Unexpected and yet somehow perfectly at home on Tectonic. Props to Pinch for his consummate A&R skill sets, though no doubts this would also bless labels such as Motown, Stones Throw, Hyperdub or even Rush Hour's Beat Dimensions series, where Ms Grooves debuted. In these times of overhyped one-trick, nu-jacks it's a rare blessing indeed to discover such an accomplished and original artist with a vision and flow to ignite flames for all the true school heads and still bring new ears to this stylish music. Big with Kode 9 and co already, get on this soon!
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