The Woodcut Crew: Woodcuts
By Jacob Connor
The Woodcut Crew gathers some prodigious emerging talent for this collaborative effort and deliver a varied, vibrant and deft slice of Pacifica. Touching upon hip hop, r'n'b and electronica, the production reflects US urban sensibilities (ala Timbaland and the Neptunes), and the mainly sequenced backing is crisp and consistent, if a little dry at times. The wonderful Sandy Mill lends a class vocal to Too Hard and Te Reotakiwa reveals skills to watch as a singer and scribe. Wordperfect has a sunny-side up Eminem schtick on the humourous Real Life Reel while r'n'b queen Jorge already sounds like a chartbound diva. The disc ends with the underwater house bounce of Green Guy's Scuba - a captivating stylistic diversion promising new horizons. Broad-ranging, with a few flat spots and borrowed bling-bling moments, there is much here to recommend. Many of these cuts would sound right at home on primetime Mai. Check out www.woodcut.co.nz for more information.
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