Sleepin' Giantz
Zed Bias, Rodney P & Fallacy joining the dots between hip hop, house, grime, dubstep and garage
Buy it now from iTunes, Amazon, Juno & Etch Shop.
Sleepin’ Giantz (aka Zed Bias, Rodney P and Fallacy) release their heavily anticipated self-titled debut album on 2nd July on Tru Thoughts. The full LP was preceded on 28th May by the buzzy, anthemic single,“Badungdeng”, which has been sending clubbers off the hook and gaining heavy radio support including Benji B (BBC R1), MistaJam (BBC R1/1Xtra), Sinden (Kiss), Gilles Peterson (BBC 6Music), DJ Q (1Xtra) and Goldierocks (The Selector/NME Radio).
The Sleepin’ Giantz project sees Zed Bias (the main musical alter-ego of Manchester based producer Dave Jones – pioneer of breakbeat garage and much loved by BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac among others) joining forces with two MCs: Rodney P (the London Posse man widely regarded as the Godfather of British hip hop) and Fallacy, often described as the missing link between UK hip hop and grime. Joining the dots between hip hop, house, grime, dubstep and garage, the ‘Sleepin’ Giantz’ album is a masterclass from these three UK heavyweights, with guest spots from Fox and Jenna G.
True to the genre-crossing musical links being forged across the album, “Sleepin’ Giantz Theme” is a fitting opener, bringing together early ‘90s boom bap with 2012 production flair; warped bass and looped synthline melodies accompanying the wallop and klack. Guest stylings come from MC Fox (who featured on the huge Zed Bias single “Dancing” last year). Next up, “Mucky” is a dirty slice of grime which Fallacy rides like a rocking horse; then “Badungdeng” kicks in, showcasing Zed’s unmistakable rhythmic take on house – applying tribal percussion, over thick bassline melodies and a glistening synthline, topped off with the flow of two of the best to ever hold a mic.
You’ll be chanting “Badungdeng” all year, no doubt, but the lead single is far from the only out-and-out classic cut here. On “And The Ting Went…”, three totally different yet complementary verses from Rodney, Fallacy and Btch Pls (aka Chase & Status collaborator Jenna G) rub up against a punchy, stripped back dubstep rhythm with high-pitched 808 stabs; all about the story, this one builds like a pressure cooker verse upon verse, each one its own little explosion. The short, sharp, charged up breakbeat garage bomb “Hand Grenade” ups the momentum with a driving bassline; giving way to classic garage tune “Raving Bully” – with vocal stabs that add to the rhythm, this drops into a proper dusty roller. Serious dancefloor business continues on “Draw For Tha Zee”, a slab of deep and dark dubstep with muted claps and percussion, the echoing synthline in the last quarter taking it a notch deeper. “Life” featuring Strategy is a pounding hip hop nodder with a neatly dropped sample spreading the song’s title through the track like a stick of rock. Anthemic house is the order of the day on “MC Pt. 1”, an ode to the dancefloor with a bouncy bassline; the closest thing to a commercial dancefloor moment on the album, this one ratchets up the ante. On “Kerosine” a hedonistic tribal garage rhythm joins forces with a melody that nods to ‘90s rave. The tempo stays up for “Final Curtain”, with jukey 808 toms and high speed claps, but closure comes care of Jenna G’s melodic, catchy vocal hooks and the multi-layered atmospherics, winding things up in euphoric style.
With conflicting workloads, diaries, geographical locations and more to contend with, for a while Sleepin’ Giantz looked destined to remain a fantasy – both for the artists involved and for their legions of fans; with the album now a reality, Fallacy talks about how it finally came together: “Rodney was in with Zed making music, I finished a rave I host called Sexy Ugly and came through. That was the night we recorded “Badungdeng”. Between me and Rodney we are a mix of busy, lazy and too cool to give a shit so the work wasn’t happening. Zed just put it out there and said let’s do it – it will happen quicker and you will both half your workload. It’s still taken two years but we are here. Sleepin’.”
