The one phrase Cliff's Notes line on Shadow Huntaz is simply: "Skamdoes hip-hop." While that's true on the surface, it might be a bitmisleading as the Shadow Huntaz' full-length on Skam is considerablymore straight-forward than I would have expected. Funckarma provide theproduction that is all funky electro hip-hop, heavy on the synths andsynthetic drums with a little bit of the signature Skam skitter, butnot as much tweaked beat-splicing as the idea of the project mightlead-on. The Vampire EPis more of the same, solid work from Shadow Huntaz, who combine cleverrhymes and interesting if not mindblowing beats in a way that is theirown. The title track, "Vampire" is a funky start/stop groove withstaccato rhymes bumping over acidy basslines. The analogy of rappers asvampires is only hinted at here, but it works. The remix of "Night,"from the Corrupt Data full length is an odd reworking thattakes some of the bombast out of the original, replacing it with echoesand a spooky, hollow ambience and tb303 bass that make it a completelydifferent track with old vocals. "Fasho" is the only misfire here--atrack that sounds like a b-side and sits uncomfortablly with itsuptempo, nearly drum n' bass tempo admist tracks of slow hip-hopnodding. "Don't got" rounds out the ep with a laundry list of thethings that the Shadow Huntaz "don't got" and it broadens the pallettea bit with chopped up samples of jazzy piano poking out in betweenbeats. While Corrupt Data includes more and often better tracks than this EP, Vampireadds to the breadth of the Shadow Huntaz formula that was starting tosound like a one-trick game by the end of the full length. This isliterate but not overly-intellectualized hip-hop that grooves andsurprises along the way. Read More
