Back in 2013, Granville Sessions released their long awaited LP Forward and served perfectly to further strengthen their standing as one of the UK’s finest hip hop acts. It was nominated for Wordplay Magazine's ‘Album Of The Year’ and, as you will probably know, you’ve got to produce something pretty fucking outstanding to be in the final run down for this now prestigious award.
Granville are a live band hip hop fusion that blend together dub and hip hop in a way that has to be seen, or at the very least heard, to be believed. Consisting of 3 Mc’s and live band noises but still proving that sampling is far from dead, this is a group that are not afraid to bare all on a track and the bars that come from Luca Brazi, Mnsr Frites & Archetype are unparalleled in their honesty. We had the their 'Forward’ album on repeat here at HQ and copped our copy from the mighty Suspect Packages the day it dropped so we know more than a thing or two about this release and we are, without doubt, among the many heads that hold it in the highest regard. This being the case, we were pretty excited (and a touch worried) when a remix album was announced. This rejig is remarkably free to download and features retouches from Uk Hip Hop royalty such as Chemo, Steady Rock & Pete Cannon as well as heads closer to the Granville family like Cambridge’s own P739 and even particularly button savvy Granville member, Luca Brazi. A lot, and I mean A LOT, of remix albums can leave us underwhelmed and sometimes a little disappointed as artists can often lose sight of why the original was so great in the first place. This often detracts from the impact of the original and leaves us asking ‘Why?’. I’m very happy to say that this is not the case here and, as you will hear for yourself, every producer comes correct as they get a chance to do their thing with the intricate acapellas from the original. 
A real stand out on this would have to be the mash up of ‘Green’ in which legendary ska punk producer Peter Miles pairs up with the sessions to cut in the distinctive chorus from The Skints ‘Rise Up’ in place of the original hook and the instrumental swapped out for something even more rubadub.
Another one that caught our attention was the Steady Rock reshuffle of ‘Ill Architecture’. Steady has a liad an interesting 8 bit lullaby in the background that does a shockingly good job of accentuating the rock solid lyricism displayed by the three MC’s. The original ‘Forward, is one of those projects that deserves much more than a few listens and provides vibes for most situations and the remixes go even further with each track being completely different from the last whilst maintaining the deep, observational and often funny lyrics from the MC’s in question. The remixes will provide even more vibes for even more situations. We were excited to hear it but undeniably apprehensive because of the way we felt about the first go. This apprehension made it even sweeter when we realised that Granville Sessions and the various producers involved have managed to create something entirely different without losing why we loved it in the first place. COP THE WHOLE PROJECT FOR FREE BELOW |
AuthorsJoe Read Archives
February 2021
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