A-Diction – Walkin’ Alone is the sophomore release from Breach & Boltz, coming in at 15 tracks.  In my opinion you can expect an album that has a little bit of something for everybody. If you’re interested, Walkin’ Alone is available on iTunes now.

A-Diction – Walkin’ Alone

Reviewer: Ruxton – August 23rd, 2010

Breach & Boltz first released under A-Diction back in 2005 with their debut EP, To Be Announced. In what i’ve calculated as 2006 they started working on this album, Walkin’ Alone. Back then it probably had an obscure working title; now the title is settled upon and thrown up in big letters on the front of the CD cover, which features some excellent artwork by R. Lyons.

A-Diction – Walkin' Alone

During all of that, Boltz managed to squeeze out a solo album titled The Wishlist, which was nothing to be sneezed at. A few ‘mixtapes’ (The Three Year Itch and In Good Company) were also had along the way, but the gold of the duos crop was being put aside and it features here on Walkin’ Alone.

I like to read album notes, do you? They’re always a fun affair, so to quote the album notes “yes, it’s too bright but the bottom of the snare sounds ok!”. To explain in more detail, listening through the album at around track 4 I started thinking quite a few tracks were just a little too sharp or bright, by track 6 I was reading the album notes and read that quote; I couldn’t have agreed more.

The intro to the CD I’d personally have not bothered with. It’s a beat by Whisper and I get the feeling it was a weaker beat that was either thrown together quickly or picked up from the trash pile of “not sure what to do with”. It basically consisted of what I describe as flat singing on a beat that didn’t suit anyone on it.

After the 3 minutes and 5 seconds of dissapointment the Intro brought my life, I was invited to take a walk. Walkin’ Alone is a beat by Lewis One, featuring Juice of Battlehoggs on the cuts. A hot beat, diced with raps about raps that all just works. With the chorus constantly hitting the line “lets take a walk” it really feels like this should’ve been the intro, inviting us into their world.

There’s a lot of listenable stuff for a while, but it’s all just raps about raps. M-Phazes comes in on One Fact with Doc Felix for cuts and it’s a nice beat, but the content on the lyrics doesn’t win gold stars. It’s not until about Wingman that we start to see actual content in the lyrics of the tracks. Unfortunately the overly bright vocals in Wingman kind of ruined it.

The lads (or their promo piece of paper) have gone and recommended Drop The Beat (Remix) as a radio player. The track features G-Force and Vida Sunshyne and I can see why it’s been recommended, it’s just a nice simple track, cleanly presented with a chick-hook; suck it up radio!

We really start to hear more content now, with the lyrics of What We Do presenting the life of the MC, I guess as these guys see it. A very enjoyable track, that you should definitely listen too with a tongue in your cheek. However I’d possibly have presented the next track Ladies and Gentlemen (basically a track about having a sense of humour) before it just for the context it could give to these lyrics.

The posse cut of the album, Capital Vices comes care of M-Phazes, with cuts from Mathmatics. It features Fraksha, Billy Bunks, Scott Burns, Whisper and Raven. Loosely themed by it’s titled, each MC presents bars on vices. It’s possibly a bit too slow, as only a few MCs actually sounded good on it. Following up from this posse cut, the tail end of the album gets pretty meaningful, with Just You, Unbalanced, Lost For Words & Hold On coming together to tie up the album nicely.

Should you buy this? sure. Will you like it? more than likely! Walkin’ Alone has a track or two for everybody, it’s not all meaningful and it’s not all bravado; It’s a little from column a and a little from column b. If you enjoy listening on good headphones the bright mix is going to annoy you, but it’s fair to say most people probably aren’t even going to notice.

Rolling on 3.5 stars, let down by the lack of consistency in the overall mix.  Brought to you by: Two, Five, Six and Thirteen.. recommended by the paper.

Syntax drops a video for the track Fact Not Fiction off his forthcoming album The Musical. The Musical is due out August 27th through Soulmate Records and you can pre-order your copy now from JB-Hifi.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Produced by Mules, Video by Full Clip (Heata & Discourse).

Breach & Boltz join forces as A-Diction once more for their sophomore release, following some mixtapes and an EP. The album Walkin’ Alone features beats by M-Phazes, Jase, Mules, Lewis One and Whisper and rounds out the track listing at 15 tracks.  We’ll be posting a short review of the album in the next day or two.

A-Diction – Walkin' Alone

A-DICTION
Walkin’ Alone
Available: August 6th
Distributed by: Obese Records

The name A-Diction says it all; wordplay, cleverness, and an overall obsession with the previous two points.

Born and raised in Melbourne, the duo consists of MCs Breach and Boltz. Breach, the precise wordsmith with focussed flow and witty punchlines, and Boltz, the crooner known for his explosive debut album ‘The Wishlist’, which featured international heavyweight Royce da 5’9” and local producer extraordinaire M-Phazes.

Yet, having released a number of well received works (2005’s ‘To be Announced’ EP; last year’s ‘The Three Year Itch’ mixtape and more recently the ‘In Good Company’ mixtape), the group have never released a full length LP; until now.

Their debut album, ‘Walkin’ Alone’, was painstakingly crafted from the rough and tumble reality of Melbourne life, and is best summarised by the events that led up to its release; it is an album that is bipolar in its thinking, a colourful swatch book of memories and observations that flitters between the lows of poverty and despair, and the highs of friendship and hilarity.

Years in the making, the LP has left no stone unturned when it comes to actively seeking musical collaborators; A-Diction have spared no expense in working with the likes of M-Phazes (Drapht, Bliss N Eso), Jase (Phrase, Daniel Merriweather, Pegz), Whisper (Equills), Lewis One (Twice As Nice) Mules (Hyjak N Torcha, Choose Mics) and enlisted the vocal talents of Vida Sunshyne and Bekah.

Behind the mic they are joined by a broad spectrum of respected and up and coming MC’s with Haunts and G-Force making memorable contributions; in addition Scott Burns, Billy Bunks, Whisper, Raven and Fraksha join A-Diction on a posse cut that is sure to be an instant underground classic. Meanwhile Doc Felix, DJ Mathmatics and DJ Juice provide some world class cutting on the album.

Available nation wide through Obese Records Distribution on August 6th 2010, the album, 4 years in production, reinforces the adage that good things come to those who wait, and clearly demonstrates the power of quality over quantity.

Backed with some impressive artwork by renowned illustrator R. Lyons, ‘Walkin’ Alone’ is a definitive all in one package; a fitting debut for artists with ten times the commercial success, let alone two poetic Melbourne partners in rhyme.

Tracklisting

1. Intro
2. Walkin’ Alone
3. Consistent
4. One Fact
5. Wingman
6. Drop the Beat feat. G-Force & Vida-Sunshyne
7. What We Do
8. Ladies & Gentleman
9. Capital Vices feat. Fraksha, Billy Bunks, Scott Burns, Whisper & Raven
10. Who Can? We Can feat. Haunts of Choose Mics
11. Just You
12. Unbalanced
13. Lost for Words
14. Hold On Prelude
15. Hold On

A-Diction’s new album Walkin’ Alone is available now through JB Hifi or grab it digitally on iTunes.

Spit Syndicate drop a video clip for Starry-Eyed, the first single off their new album Exile.  Starry-Eyed is available now on their sophomore album Exile, from your favourite record store or from itunes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s even more chances to win this week. Thanks to Syntax & the crew at Soulmate Records, we have 3 copies of Syntax’s new album, The Musical to giveaway. The Musical will be released on August 27th, if you’re not a winner and want to get a copy from JB Hifi and score a free MP3.

Syntax

Here’s how you can take part

1. Make sure you’re following Syntax on twitter at http://twitter.com/whoissyntax
   1. Follow Soulmate Records, you won’t win anything but they’re behind all this, http://twitter.com/solm8
2. Let us know via the contact form below that you’re following Syntax, make sure you tell us your twitter username
3. The first 3 people to get in will win a copy

Here’s what we’ve got

1. 3 x Syntax-The Musical

Here’s the rules

1. Duplicate entries aren’t allowed, 1 entry per person, not per twitter account.
2. There’s 3 copies, that’s 3 people, once they’re won, the competition is over.
3. Anyone can enter, you just need a twitter account

The competition is now closed, thanks to all the entrants.