The Opinionated Diner

How fucking cool are The Others? I’m not talking about the US or the English bands with the same name, rather our Auckland version, 3 kids from Mt Albert that I first encountered at the Suede Bar in Symonds St earlier this year.

As I said in an earlier post, I’m not a massive fan of most of the current crop of NZ hip hop acts (although Scribe I believe is a true pop star (and has benefited from intelligent and dedicated hard work from his label), he has what Pauly Fuemana had what a young Graham Brazier had all those years ago at the Globe Hotel in 1975, what Ray Columbus had, although without a global record company, which FMR is not, its hard to see how he’ll go beyond Australasia, I mean he ain’t Mos Def) and the failure of Misfits of Science album to set the stores alight (less than 300 sold in its week of release, out of 7500 shipped) may mean the kids don’t have much faith in most of them. The Mareko album didn’t exactly sell despite all the hype too. I just find it rather sad, that as hip hop evolves and develops around the world at a revolutionary pace, much of the stuff that we throw out sits uncomfortably in the mid nineties looking backward. To me, the industry hype is simply the Emperor's brand new outfit from people who would have a great deal of trouble telling an EPMD record from Jay-Z.

But there is something different about these guys, something I hadn’t felt since the early punk bands, an energy, a cool urgency factor. You can pick it in the room. That you need to be there, to experience this because it may never come again. Something I last felt with The Enemy years ago at Zwines. And no subservient Americana either, in their delivery or appearance.

Since I’m trying to get these guys hooked up to a record deal, I’m more than a little biased, but I felt it the first time I heard them, long before that. The lush, almost epic soundscapes, the effortlessly to and fro twists of their very stream of conciousness rhymes (that don’t speak to me as I’m far too old but I’m used to that..you talk to your peers, especially in hiphop, although this sits on the edge of being something else) really are something beyond the cliches.

Like I said, fucking cool. I’m seriously impressed, guys.