Riaan Wolmarans
CD OFTHEWEEK
The Bomfunk MC’s know how to have fun. This is evident on the Finnish outfit’s debut album, In Stereo (Sony), from which the first single, Freestyler, shot them into the charts. This was followed by a string of hits like Uprocking Beats, B-Boys &Flygirls and Other Emcee’s.
In Stereo is a playful, funky mix of electro, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, house and breakbeats. By continually mixing samples and other interesting sounds into the beats and rhyming, Raymond Ebanks and Jaakko “JS16″Salovaara manage to greatly enhance what could have been a very unoriginal album. A bonus is the inclusion of videos for Freestyler and Uprocking Beats.
Don’t expect too much from it, though it’s designed for fun only. Content rarely goes deeper than a “we got a funky song, so come on sing along” level. It’s the kind of album that livens up parties and fills dance floors just too bad that, due to serious overplay, it already suffers from a case of radio killed the dance-floor star.