Alexis Petridis
CD OFTHEWEEK
If, as twinkle-eyed 1970s comic Mike Harding once sang, it’s hard being a cowboy from Rochdale, then being a hip-hop production duo from Manchester is a job Sisyphus would consider a bit of a schlep. The problem faced by Rae and Christian, just such a Mancunian duo, is the same for all British hip-hoppers: gaining respect, especially from hip- hop’s founding fathers in the United States.
The stronger the American hip-hop scene is, the less likely it is that anywhere else in the world will get a look in, and right now, US hip-hop and R&B is going through one of its regular periods of thrilling, unpredictable reinvention. What chance do a pair of bespectacled Lancastrian knob-twiddlers have?
In fact, for the past five years Rae and Christian have been doing quite nicely, thank you. After founding Manchester’s celebrated record store Fat City and the equally regarded label Grand Central, Mark Rae and Steve Christian have performed a remarkable balancing act. Their production style soft keyboards and muted orchestral samples, influenced by US soul but shot through with a distinctly English strain of melancholy has proved original and inventive enough to win that elusive Stateside respect. It’s also proved palatable enough to allow the duo a lucrative parallel career as remixers. The one fly in the ointment was the failure of their excellent 1999 debut album, Northern Sulphuric Soul, to translate critical acclaim into crossover success.
Two years on, Sleepwalking (Grand Central) pools together a similar collection of taut, funky instrumentals, heavyweight guest rappers (this time, Californians The Pharcyde collaborate on two sparkling tracks) and moody ballads.
They’ve even got an actual soul legend on board: 56-year-old Bobby Womack. Unfortunately, on Get a Life, Rae and Christian appear to have been so overawed by Womack’s considerable presence they forgot to write a song, but the stirring voice that powered Across 110th Street saves the day. Wake Up Everybody, which boasts semi-improvised vocals and a darkly portentous backdrop, is a highlight. Better still is Vai Viver a Vida, the collaboration with Brazilian singer Tania Maria, whose voice floats sexily around swelling strings and simple acoustic guitar.
Only one collaboration falls entirely flat Hold Us Down. There’s no excuse for marooning the impassioned falsetto voices of roots reggae legends The Congos on the sort of anodyne funk that provides suburban clothes shops with background muzak. While they may wisely eschew working with British MCs, Rae and Christian have a knack for discovering home-grown singers. Here it is Rae’s cousin, Kate Rogers, who provides Sleepwalking’s stand-out track, Not Just Anybody. Her gorgeously drowsy voice is perfectly matched to shimmering, twilight atmospherics.
Will Sleepwalking make mainstream stars of Rae and Christian? It seems unlikely: the album is defiantly out of step with current R&B and hip- hop trends. When the Pharcyde rap here, it’s over propulsive breakbeats and muted jazz keyboards rather than the hook-laden, sample-heavy chart sound. But if it avoids current trends, it also avoids British hip-hop’s fatal flaw: sounding like a clod-hopping pastiche. Sleepwalking boasts a style, and a charm, entirely its own.