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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful debut from Birmingham's new Wonderboy, 6 April 2002
By A Customer
Ever since garage erupted a couple of years ago, the scene has been looking for its REAL stars. They thought they found one in Craig David, but then the bobble-headed one degenerated into a more easy niche - american styled R'N'B with garage-lite beats. This was Mainstream Garage and has continued to polloute the airwaves with a slew of similar acts such as Mystique, DJ Luck etc. Then garage fans starved for thrills were confonted with a new garage, a dark garage, a dirty garage, a So Solid Garage. They were the next big thing and were hyped to be Britain's ten-year late response to America's NWA. They were shown up, however, to be as one-dimensional as the overground garage supremos they were riling against in their 'playa-haters' anthems. Now, dance music's brightest star. No hype, no fan-fares, just pure genius. UK Garage finally has a world-class spokesperson and is in the shape of 22-year old Mike Skinner. Just when you thought there were no surprises left in modern pop music, an artist comes along and disproves that notion completely. He has single-handedly restored hope in the genre of British dance music and, particularly, UK Garage. Packed to the rim with sharp one-liners, vicious beats and brilliant production, Original Pirate Material is a masterpiece of urban soundscaping and real-life lyrical vignettes concerning wild nights in Amsterdam, addiction, fighting in the pub and getting wasted. Skinner delivers these lyrics in his very own style, practically spitting them out in his Brummie accent and not trying to appeal to a mass audience by Americanising his accent. Meanwhile, there is Specials-style ska, 'Blue Lines'-era Massive Attack and skittering two-step playing in the background. From the apocalyptic (Turn The Page) to the ridiculously comic but needle-point sharp (The Irony Of It All) and the sublime (Weak Become Heroes) to the hilarious (Don't Mug Yourself), this album is all killer and no filler and gets better with each listen. This is an album that will soon be regarded as a classic. Buy into it now and remember it as it happened.
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