Border Crossing Original Head03 12" London based Bordercrossing are more of a collective than group, whose fluid membership has numbered up to ten or more heads, all based around a core of three producers/mixers - Seorais Graham, Paul Mulvey and Alex Angol. This, their debut 12”, kicks off in fine form on the A side with ‘OriginalHeads03’. An old-school horn lick ushers in the slightly muddy bass groove and head-nod drums. Emcee Rockwell carries on the retro tip with some tight rhyming and a chorus of ‘Original heads in the area, taken back to ’93, original heads in the area, the era of the true MC’. Although Rockwell raps with a heavy American accent, the crew’s website states “he's got an American twang because he lived there for so long, but he's still from this country”. So there! Flip the wax over and London via Halifax emcee drops some more tight flows and conscious lyrics over two mixes of ‘NoGoArea’. The first, ‘Sun Mix’, is a heavy, stripped down affair with sparse drum machine rhythms and a nice synth wash over the break. The second ‘original’ mix lays down a mellow guitar drone, horn lick and solid drums topped off with a nicely understated scratch. Another neck-cracker. I really enjoyed this EP, which manages to pay homage to that old-school vibe but still sounds fresh and forward-thinking at the same time. With this confident debut to go by, Bordercrossing should be a name to watch with interest in the future. - The Twizt © ukhh.com 1999 - 2003