Schedules The One To Watch LP
Hailing from the shimmering shores of Bournemouth and with a track record going as far back as 1995 is Schedules. Once the co-founder of Bournemouth duo DLS in 1997, Schedules comes to us now on his latest solo venture, The One To Watch, a self-produced, self-designed album with refreshingly little self-indulgence.
Schedules himself is certainly no stranger to the microphone or the stage, indeed since his DLS days he’s built up a steady local fan base, and right there in the inlay card is a flyer for the regular Thursday Bournemouth night he hosts, Southern Hustle (if anything go for the £1.50 drinks, oh the days). But it’s for this reason I was a little underwhelmed on beginning this record. There’s nothing I could really fault as such, but having perused the history of Schedules I expected a little more, well, oomph. The first two tracks are steady violin beats with a tinge of Latin spring to their step. Lyrically he’s solid enough, if a little reserved, but these are emotionally-driven tracks that needed either bigger beats or better placement.
No matter though, third track lucky and Welcome To B’Town raises the game significantly. Billed as the ‘club’ tune of the album, Schedules’ flow is excellent and vocally very different to many of the other tracks, raps-wise an approach I’d like to see repeated more often. Basically he just sounds more like he wants you to hear him, on a mean electro beat that lacks a little clout still, but is great fun all the same. Similar is Let It Go two tracks later.
The album carries on with less electro and more guitar, like the wonderfully bassy The Prayer, and the highly ragga-fied Zip It Up, another one likely to rock a club pretty heartily. This Is Me drags affairs back towards the emotional, with an interesting spell of honest self-introspection. He doesn’t let up in wearing his heart on his sleeve, over a beat sampling an often-used classical sample (not that I could actually tell you which other songs sample it, or even what the sample is).
He closes with some more Latino-inspired songs, Walk The Walk probably not sounding out of place on a Cypress Hill CD. The flows switch up but again, the beats are missing that important ‘something’ that sets them apart from a lot of self-produced material that I hear. They’re not bad by any stretch, they’re very good in fact and if that was my final product I’d be very satisfied, you just get the idea they could be so much more. I love that he closes by addressing the identity of the UK hip-hop industry in I Don’t Understand. These conscious lyrics deserve more of a platform than the straight bass they’ve been given, but Schedules should be congratulated for doing a damn fine job all the same.
I think it should be mentioned that Schedules spent the early part of last year taking part in the Red Cross’s Hip Hop 4 Humanity initiative, presenting the culture to local youth centres with the aim of using rap as a positive influence on young lives. His awareness comes through with his lyrics and he doesn’t stray from subject, but if he could show the same full-bodied charisma in the studio, as performer or producer, as he obviously does on the stage, I think his next record could be something special. I think the issue is this particular LP feels like it’s a stepping stone up to much bigger and more defined things. It's a fine record, just keep ‘em coming.
"a self-produced, self-designed album with refreshingly little self-indulgence."
- err
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