Low-Life | UK Hip Hop Story | Lewis Parker

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Early Doors:
1979-1985

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Underground Years:
1990-1995

The Renaissance:
1995- 2000

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Lewis Parker - Its All Happening Now [Melankolic]

Track Listings
1. Intro To The Sky
2. Incognito
3. City Expanse
4. Communications
5. Golden Sound
6. Beat (Skit)
7. What The Ancients Say
8. Pow (Skit)
9. Movement & Rhythm
10. Kidsoul (Skit)
11. Mum's The Word
12. Sunny Dedications
13. Anticipation
14. Ice & Fire (Skit)
15. It's All Happening Now
16. Figments From The Sky
17. Cold Sun
18. Spy (Skit)
19. Seasons Of Espionage
20. The Chase
21. Espionage (Skit)
22. At Large With A-Cyde
23. No Escape

After waiting for, erm, what is it now since Masquerades? About 2, 3 years? Well in between we have seen Lewis keep his oar in the water firstly with the '98 series releases on Low Life Records and later continuing with the same group of artists brought together for the aforementioned Low Life releases as the Champions Of Nature or CON Artists. Then there was the mysterious Options EP which surfaced what seems like ages ago, and I for one thought that it would herald the release of this LP. Well we were all wrong and had to wait a bit longer, but again he tempted us with his production on Klashnekoff's floor filler, Dago Mentality. Well, was the extortionate wait worth it, and did Lewis put his time to good use? Well, surprisingly the answer is yes. Surprising because with so much time spent locked in a studio could well have driven Lewis mad and far up his own arse. However this is not the case and luckily this appears to be the LP that everyone was expecting and wanted to hear. Pretty much all of it is self produced, and that means you get the trademark Lewis sound and samples. Maybe he did all the production work, it is hard to tell from the limited liner notes on the CD. The Easy Listening cliché still fits quite well and you can see where he got his publishing name, Dusty Vinyl from. Lyrics wise much of the work is put in by Lewis himself as well, but he is helped out on a fair few tracks by his Champion Of Nature friends, Jehst, who graces 3 tracks, Supa T, who is on 3 tracks as well, Profound who is on 2, Apollo, A-Cyde and the only non CON member Ricochet Klashnekoff all appear on 1 track each.

The record opens with the mad 'Its All Happening' sample from what sounds like a 50's film soundtrack before we get into Intro To The Sky properly. A gentle celeste riff and suppressed female backings over a dirty beat give us the classic Parker feel. For the first track the lyrics are surprisingly retrospective, and a bit unfocussed. For me the LP really gets moving with track 2, Incognito, which is also featured on the first single from the LP. Here Mr Parker weaves a sequence from a high string note, xylophone tones and occasional breathy voice, which contrasting with my description raises the hardness stakes as Lewis puts more energy into his delivery. The main topic being how one can live a whole life without interacting with other humans and keeping on the DL. I assume that it is DJ Bias who is cutting up on the outro to the track, but I didn't notice him get a credit anywhere on the cover. Things continue in their mixed up way for City Expanse. Repetitive wide spectrum horns are again combined with xylophone notes to contrast the hard with the smooth, but this how L Parker gets down and he can ride this style with his semi laxadasical delivery speeded up slightly for this track.

Communications returns us to the vibe of the opening track by reducing the intensity. Another sweet horn and bell laced break with its descending progression give the track plenty of emotion. This is also the first track featuring a guest vocalist. Jehst gets this honour and as ever does himself great justice in delivering a lovely verse filled with plenty of synonyms and similes as well as sticking to the topic of modern ways of communicating. Jehst 'posts emails in brown paper envelopes'! Golden Sound, also features a guest. This time Apollo joins Lewis for the second verse. This track stands up in its own right, but in the context of the LP it uses a familiar formula, which as the LP progresses will recur many times. Lewis knows what he is doing and pretty much sticks to that, many of the tracks having the same feel. as those preceding and as you'll find out

What the Ancients Say has a bit more of an experimental backing track whose primary driver is some repeated skat singing and ballroom piano. LP's flow switches up a bit for this too, but towards the end of the track the sequence and arrangement could have done with a few more changes. Movement & Rhythm which features one of my favourite MCs is also a classic track. The MCs urge you to 'Get up, get up get up, nahh, sit back down' over the mellow head nodding vibe and bongo rolls. The same sample returns for the Kidsoul Skit, which was probably one of the discarded tracks as it gets going, rap and all, but simply fades out after 30 seconds. Pianos are transposed for un-distorted electric guitar, and a beat with slightly more swing on Mum's The Word, which is a tale about his addiction and love for vinyl and digging it out. The next C.O.N. member to deliver a verse is Profound who appears on Sunny Dedications, a track which utilises one of the most beautiful violin samples I have ever heard. It is just the right chord with the exact frequencies that really grab your emotions. This combined with more pianos and other orchestral instruments is Lewis at his most creative best. Profound has quite a unique delivery and style which I have felt is frequently done an injustice because it definitely needs different recording skills to get him sounding right. Here Profound is more than audible, so who ever engineered that verse did an excellent job.

Anticipation is one of the tracks that is Lewis Parker by numbers. I'm sure he can bang tracks like this out in his sleep. Nothing at all wrong with it, except for the sameyness and that you get the feeling that one Lewis gets the first few bars composed it is just a matter of letting the sequencer run, rather than tailoring certain beats and bars to the lyrics or just keeping things fresh. When Klashnekoff enters the arena, we are treated to a different vibe. The title track It's All Happening Now is seriously hard. A descending trumpet riff and other muted brass are twisted to the dark side, something quite different from the opening couple of bars. Seems this album doesn't really have a flow or cohesive story to tell. It is really a collection of songs. To demonstrate this Figments From The Sky comes next in the sequence, and is on a different vibe again. Cold Sun which featuring Jehst and Profound comes close to being a posse cut. A simple beat punctuated with some wheezy brass and the usual dirty drums make this heavy and the battle lyrics sit comfortably in the track. The only thing I forgot to mention is the ubiquitous bells! Seasons of Espionage follows swiftly with another 3 way spit-fest. Jehst and Supa T come back again and do an admirable job over tubular bells.

There is only a couple of full tracks remaining to mention which include The Chase which has a bit of a more experimental backing where Lewis has thrown all sorts into the mix. Sharp stabs, big open snares, flutes, saxes and maybe bassoons as well as tinkley piano. Blade makes quite a big contribution to this track, but for some reason he isn't credited on the sleeve. The penultimate track At Large With A-Cyde is also the B side to the first single and is mostly about the big beats, unidentified high pitched sound and triangle. Out of all the tracks this one has that feeling that many people will appreciate it, whereas for the others you needed to be somewhere near Lewis' plane of thought. The LP is closed off by No Escape, backed with warbling flutes mixed in the background. Klashnekoff is also on this one and again he isn't credited. The lyrics are as coherent and deep as any on the entire record and as such it is a suitable come down to what had been a bit of a swinging pendulum of styles throughout.

So, everything considered, this is a gem of an LP, and although heads have run out of saliva waiting for it, there is more than enough here to get them moist again. There is a total of 24 tracks, which includes a total of 7 skits. So there is plenty of material to keep heads bobbing. The only controversial thing that I have to say about this record, is that one day as I was playing it at work one of my colleagues came over and said that this sounded just like Nas. I'll admit that the flows do a bit, which is no bad thing at all, but there is on occasion a bit of an accent issue. I wouldn't have made that connection myself and personally I can take it and think that Lewis sounds sufficiently English, especially when compared to some of his very early work. However the issue still remains and we have to wait and see whether it will be blown out of proportion. People have commented on the sonic quality of the drums, and I don't know what they are on about. They are lovely and crusty, there is nothing wrong with that. Get out there and make sure that this record is on your shopping lists, you need it.

Lewis Parker Discography