Urban Species

Urban Species are a London rap outfit on the UK acid-jazz label Talking Loud. One listen to the album and it's easy to see why; their mix of live instrumentation and samples owes more to the laid-back jazz-funk shuffle of UK bands like Galliano and the James Taylot Quartet than to hardcore US-rap exponents such as Public Enemy.

The music capitalizes nicely on its jazz-funk base to take in gentle forays into reggae ("The Ropes"), swingbeat (UK hit "Spiritual Love"), 90's soul ("Just a Matter of Time"), Latin percussion ("The Consequence"), utilizes acoustic guitar on the title-track and even rock-guitar and P.E. style squeals on "Gotta Have It". There's some nice grooves and beats on here - a bit lacking in that vital spark in places, but enough to get you smiling and nodding your head.

The problem is that the vocals fail to excite, being the usual monotone rap used as a foil for traditional jazz-funk vocals with bands of that ilk. As a contrast, such a style works well, but here, as the focus, it is found lacking. Their clarity is their one redeeming feature with the lyrics solid but predictable.

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