So here's the teaser from ukhh battle board veterans 21Eyez. At six tracks long, all four members of the Mancunian crew get their chance to demonstrate their skills and the first track with Noz behind the boards, 21 Eyez Anthem, opens the assault on the eardrums with an insistent piano loop while the emcees interlock nicely. There's no real complex message here, it's all about the flows and the battle lyrics and the lads pull it off nicely.
The second tune, Animal Pharm Stars, follows the barnyard theme that Aspects recently used on "We Get Fowl". Now call me twisted, but rhymes about having sex with mammoths "'til the anal rim's sore" don't really flick my switch…still, the beat has a nice eastern vibe to it.
The third track, "Morons and Misfits" lacks the energy of the previous two and the emcees don't seem to be enjoying themselves, which means that they have lost the battle by the time the first chorus comes round.
When "Desperate" drops the lads are back on form though and they gets the thumbs up for rocking the humorous (if not nasty) John Goodman sample from the Big Lebowski. The moody orchestral sample sees the crew on inspired form and while the lyrics aren't Anticon deep, the emcees show an interesting chemistry which seems to be only brought out by what our Timmy would call, bangers.
The good times come to a sudden stop with "The Incident", which is an uninspired ditty about chasing tail. I have to say I was quite disappointed with this tune because after putting in mad work on the other tunes, the Eyez have gone off on a tangent just for the sake of representing.
The final track is a headnodder which rocks a nice jazz trumpet sample as the Animal Pharm Stars let us know why they're like a latter day Rat Pack and it's a nice laid back track to end with.
These guys have been putting their name about in our little corner of cyberspace for a minute now and its cool to finally hear a product. The demo is definitely solid but falters on occasion (don't take it personal lads, most of the major label albums that are coming out these days have their shady moments), and having spoken to Pneumatic I was informed that a certain well known British label is looking for the boys to come out and 'play' so we may well be seeing more of them in the future.
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