With a name like his, you might expect Athenian producer Moderator to have some sort of enforcement powers and he certainly makes sure that Vol. 10 of the Cold Busted label’s Street Bangerz series keeps its shit tight. The album weighs in at a respectable fifteen tracks and if this six-track sampler is anything to go by it’s one of the strongest releases on the label in some time. Ain’t Nobody Change My Mind turns on a dusty vocal soul hook and is very much in the territory much explored by The Allergies of late and Trouble keeps up the vintage boom-bap vibe albeit with a rocksteady flavour. L.A. rap crew Revolutionary Rhythm turn up on Keep On which also features a Riders On The Storm-ish Rhodes piano motif over the rhythm. It’s chipmunk-soul hook time on Sometime I Feel which returns to the dusty beats, while vehicle for female rapper Maicee, Voyager, employs a super clean boom-clap. For the monkey’s money though, one of the best cuts on here is the Morricone-esque breaks of Why Tonight which rides into town amid the sound of vintage organs vying with tremolo-ed guitar over reassuringly chunky head-nod drums.
(Out 1 July on Cold Busted)