Boasting what could be Australia’s first contribution to grime, the demo debut from Sydney 10-piece (at least) Reverse Polarities has potential, but it’s far from ready. The first thing you notice is the DIY packaging. Whoever sent the CD hand wrote the song titles in blue biro on graph paper and stuck it onto a jewel case. It provides a fair indicator for the songs within.
‘Sunglasses At Night’s isn’t the Corey Hart song covered by Canada’s DJ Tiga (2001). Instead it’s a paean to the group’s live show: getting rowdy and partying all night. It doesn’t translate well laid down in the group’s Newtown bedroom studio. The song is badly mixed, and rendered virtually unlistenable by a female vocal more suited to early ’90s Italian house. Next up, ‘Bedtime Stories,’ suffers the same fate. A preachy story about hitting rock bottom accompanies a repetitive beat, with the warbler way up in the mix. It’s bizarre; was everyone else too shy to step up to the microphone?
The self-described nice bunch of blokes rap about drinking at the arree (Newtown RSL, I presume) and getting blind drunk at house parties. It’s mostly boom-bap, but ‘Land of Oz’ is the first grime-influenced track I’ve heard from Australians. Flowing over what sounds like a Wiley out-take – acid-drenched electronic weirdness – the young MCs try their best to keep up. The writing – “the land of oz, where every hand has a can of Foster’s” – and MCs rapping as fast as they can exposes the group’s weaknesses. Despite all that, there’s plenty of potential in these six tracks. This is just a demo after all. But they may need some executive production and a decent studio.
Matthew Levinson
