[RATING: 5]
Heads up folks, Ram Skank is back once more with a 5-tracker of vintage-sounding big beat – the Madcap EP. The (almost) title cut Madcap Diggin’ starts off in a doomy Prodigy/ Diesel Power manner before switching to upbeat party breaks, Break Up is like classic early Chemicals, and Bonus Breakathon Beats does what it says on the tin. Naturally if you’re going to go rooting around in the audio soil like a drunken pirate who can’t remember where his treasure is you’ll inevitably strike something nasty and there it is – a lengthy house beat bridge lurking in the middle of Watch Me Now – but I doubt many punters will be bothered by this. In any case, more than one of the original big beat lot could claim that there was a ‘house element’ to their music. Which just leaves my favourite – certified peak-time party cut Are You Listenin’ which jettisons both a question mark and the vocals on the most famous beat to emerge from the Soul Assassins camp replacing them with a number of acid flourishes and a helium-soul vocal loop. The likes of Monkey Mafia, the Chemicals and Lionrock would be proud.
(Out now on Ramskank Records)