Minds Believing is the title to emcee Undertow’s (SYD) debut hip hop LP. Featuring 15 tracks, with the bulk of the production handled by Dazed. Guest spots include Flawlezz, Fame, Swarmy, Rinse from Bingethinkers, Ayeone, Nehi, Double G, Logical (UK) and SPEx. On first impressions Mind’s Believing has all the makings of a quality package. Cover design is by April77, with the album mixing handled by Fame and mastering by Joseph Carra. With Undertow’s diverse emcee background in dnb, grime and electronica, we were quite interested to hear what style Undertow would bring to the fore front of this album……..It was quite clear from early on that this was a hip hop album.
The track Open Doors, our first higlight, bouncers around building on a subtle violin string backdrop. Undertow raps about the opportunities present in life on this track, dealing with this issue from a positive stance. The appropriately titled track Swagger featuring Dazed and Flawlezz on the mic, really hits a great note. Swagger has a smooth mellow sound that will ‘Make ya nod your head like a bunch of yes men, live life with few regrets, looking round the next bend’.
Some Call It Life, one of the few tracks not produced by Dazed, features Flawlezz on the boards. Undertow steps things up a notch here and has him flexing his mic experience from the get go. The beat on Some Call It Life is planted around some great horns, that sound like they have been taken straight from a 1920′s Steamboat Willie cartoon.
Australian youth culture, love, mental illness and friends who have passed away are some of the other heavy issues that Undertow deals with on Mind’s Believing, an album that offers real in site to the mind of a dynamic artist. Between The Cracks featuring Bingethinkers emcee Rinse, plays along nicely with some great verses from both Undertow and Rinse (check out Between The Cracks below). Dazed delivers some sinister sounding shit on the track Level Of Proof which features Flawlezz again on the mic. Work It Out, the albums posse track featuring Ayeone, Swarmy, Nehi, Double G and Logical, Dazed and Flawlezz, Rinse and Fame. Work It Out is an epic track with all involved coming together in a great way.
Final conclusions, Undertow drops an album with strength and great replay value. The grime, dnb and electronic music lovers will find something here and the hip hop heads won’t be turned off either. Undertow - Minds Believing is an album that crosses the whole gamut of human emotion, with a heavy lean-to the positive side of things. Dazed puts in some solid work on the production front and the guest appearances add a nice touch to a highly enjoyable album.
We rate Undertow’s – Mind Believing 3.2 out of 5
Minds Believing is out now through Foreigndub and Vitamin Records or itunes
Undertow – Between The Cracks feat. Rinse
