(Carioca/Shock)

This CD – another double grab-bag of goodies – arrived just in time for my regular bedroom cleaning, bathroom scouring and hedge clipping frenzy. In these kinds of moods I am prone to dress oddly in home made sweat bands and mismatched socks, get dirty, hot and sweaty and dance around like a loon while trying to pretend that scrubbing is fun. As you might imagine, I need a relatively upbeat soundtrack to accompany my antics.

Eschewing Yousef, I decided to start with Krafty and see if the beats could sustain me through my endeavours. Well, this quickly turned out to be a big ol’ “pawty” album with clear vestiges of big beat influence and a cheery sort of flavour. Krafty was, on this occasion, delving deep into his big box of block party favourites, which resulted in a somewhat mediocre mix. Still, that’s not to say there weren’t a few tasty, summery tunes thrown in: Fort Knox 5’s Brazilian Hipster, Blim & Rennie Pilgrim’s 2 Freaks acapella and ye olde electro-bum Gary Numan added an interesting depth, while things got decidedly more funky with the delicious Drumattic Twins’ Feelin Kinda Strange, the Plump DJs and Skool of Thought. And I have to admit to a certain fondness for the energetic, upbeat and distinctly ‘latino’ feeling encouraged by Barcelona, from D-Kay and Epsilon. So it ain’t all bad – it all mixed up!

Yousef was slapped on in the middle of aforesaid frenzy, by which time I was hacked to pieces by the unforgiving hedge, sunburnt and angrily huffy and puffy. After all the sunshine and happiness of Krafty’s half, it was somewhat of a relief to land on the distinctly darker and sleazier sounds of Yousef’s. Things kicked off with Harri and the Revenge’s Slack Jaw, a pornified dance tune which wasn’t half bad. Cartoon’s Time:Change started off with strains of the sort of overture heard at the end of a poorly attempted romance film, then veered off into saxo-bleating house. From there, things got rather house blah de blah, with delightful exceptions from Blakkat and Tyra, with Other Women and the decent Action, from Harry Monroe. Mu’s “Let’s get Sick” was, quite frankly, bizarre. It sounded like Cartman from South Park squealing over a tinkering, bossa beat.

At the end, I was really left scratching me head. I couldn’t quite work out why two such diverse artists were thrown together, until I perused the sleeve notes for a second time. Chibuku is, Krafty says, a “crazy, eclectic, boom shaking night” in Brighton. Perhaps we’ll just have to take their word for it. In the meantime, if things all mish-mashed and bish bash boshy mixed in with smooth house and jazz float yer boat … this could be one for you.