By: Erik Nava
Artist: Mike Relm
Title: Spectacle
Label: Radio Fried Records
Release Date: 1.22.09
UPC: 718122907564
Genres: Hip Hop : Electronic
Territories: World
In 1999, turntablists had finally made a name for themselves, the bay area was at the top of the hip hop game, and Mike Relm was perfectly in the mix between the innovators and originators. Since then Mike Relm has moved past the underground battle break records, away from his turntablist crew STA, burned the cease and desist orders, and re-imagined his own identity as one of the world’s best Producer/Djs.
“Spectacle” opens into a room with Relm at one end, and his fans scattered beneath him, dancing against each other in a packed warehouse party. The bass lines are thick, and the arrangements even thicker as the song “Tron” progresses. I could only start to imagine the party people trading in the glowsticks for bright glowing circuit board suits before I was sucked back into the song and then realized that this wasn’t nearly as cheesy as “TRON” the 80′s cult classic. This song was a song fit for the time and place, speaking perfectly for the ever moving dance scene.
As quickly as it picks up the album cuts the tempo in half as Del the Funky Homosapien pushes himself to the front with a song that any hip hop kid can’t sweat. The song has the key elements to any great hip hop track; a drum break that doesn’t get any cleaner, a mean bass line, and one of those choruses that gets stuck in your head for days.
“Spectacle” has no shortage of guest appearances and what more could you expect from a mash up DJ who’s used to grabbing at stars by the tips of his fingers? ”Body Rock” featuring the San Francisco hometown hero Gift of Gab and Morningwood, brings us right back up tempo with the most promising dance track on the album. Slightly reminiscent of the days of So So Def, and Too Live Crew, this track does something that not too many dance songs do. It makes you dance without feeling bad about it, and rides the line between genres so smoothly that it wouldn’t surprise me to hear this at my nieces high school dance or at an underground dance club.
The album’s interludes serve as a remote control for the changes of styles from dance to downtempo and everything in between. Spectacle is cohesive only because it’s produced by one person, but perhaps the varying styles of the 12 (actual) tracks on the album are meant to show us the ever adapting mind used to create it.
Other notable tracks include “Hot to Trot”, “You break” featuring Mr. Lif, and “Without Her” featuring Lateef.
Mike Relm
“Hot to Trot (feat. Alfredo Ortiz)” (mp3)
from “Spectacle”
(Radio Fried Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
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