Heresy Edutainment Album Reviews
One day, while I was at Bloor
Cinema in downtown Toronto, I came across someone selling CD's at the street
corner. The person- Reason from Heresy Edutainment- was out promoting the
company's product, and, having a review site, it piqued my interest. After telling
him my credentials, he sold it to me. These are my thoughts on what I bought:
Heresy Entertainemnt- Frozen In
Time: The Heresy Classics (1998-2003) (Heresy Entertainment) (WWWW)
The best of the three albums I
bought at Bloor Cinema, it is an incredibly vibrant and energetic album,
covering a wide array of artists from Toronto's Heresy Entertainemnt and thus a
wide array of ideas. The turnover of artists keeps this album fresh, with songs
ranging from mid-tempo mellow hip-hop songs to straight-out bangers. Every
artist here shines, with the best ones being the Cryogenics and Ice Breakers,
who provide the rather explosive and firey songs "Stop This
Craziness" and 'Ice Pick" towards the end. That doesn't mean that
there are no other highlights- Heresy's collaborative "News
Broadcast", though featuring a rather dumb "broadcast" of dying
MCs, is still quite entertainining and memorable, plus NSS give the album a
proper opener in "Wisdom". Overall, it's great work from a great
label.
Just Cuz Productions- The
Unknowns Vol. 1 (Just Cuz Productions) (WWW)
This album is a collection of
songs featuring a vareity of acts that- for some reason- are unnamed. Now,
there may be an allure to having mysterious acts, but I for one was
disconcerted because you'd hear a great song and wonder who performed it,
because I at least think talents should be recognized. Regardless, this point
is relatively minor- what's more important is the songs, and, when compared to
Pojo's "The Uncommon Man", this collection, while interesting at
times, isn't that compelling as a complete product. It started off nicely, with
the bass-friendly "'Cuz It's Funny", but after a few spins, the album
grew a little tiring. That doesn't mean that it did not have any positives-
songs like "Ride" and the Finley Quaye-like "Remember Who U
Are" are pretty memorable, plus like "The Uncommon Man" it has a
natural feel to the music, which is something that you don't get everyday- but
overall I just felt like it could have been better. Still, for what it's worth,
it's still worth listening to, but I wouldn't expect it to make as much of an
impact as "Poor Common Man" from Pojo will.
Pojo- Poor Common Man (WWWW)
(Heresy Edutainment)
Needless to say, after a couple
of spins, I was impressed. Like the Cryogenics, the beats are made using mainly live instruments, so it has a
very "natural" feel to it. Plus, it's mellow, midtempo grooves make
it a great album to sit back and relax to, but it's also bouncy enough to
really dance to if you want to. Such a combination isn't achieved often, and
certainly not at this quality. As for specific song highlights, they include
the explosive second song "Arrival", the reflective "Common
Man's Pain", the catchy "Historie" and the fast-moving closer, "Live
Life", which is also the album's best song.
Overall, it is a pretty
impressive album. It's marred by a little too much indistinctiveness (I reckon
the songs are supposed to be distinct, but this can be a challenge especially
on the first listen), but, given better sound equipment (audio quality isn't
the best here, but they're independents so I let it go), this group could
really produce something that could make an impact on a large scale. For now,
though, they have potential, and are steering themselves on the right course
for even more success.
-DG