Hearin' Aid - The Boom Lucy

(Jugglin’/Creative Vibes)

Hearin’ Aid consists of Zambian MC Aaron Phiri and Hawaiian-born DJ/producer Damon Frost.  Having met in Sweden in 1995, they began a “séance of irreverent freestyling and unorthodox beat making” which culminated in this, their first full length album: The Boom Lucy.

The combination of a Zambian and a Hawaiian on a Swedish record label rates off the scale on the indie hip hop cool-o-meter, but unfortunately the end product doesn’t quite hit the mark.  Aaron Phiri’s rapping is tight and interesting, and having seen him perform as part of the Raw Fusion Sound System in support of the Quantic Soul Orchestra and Alice Russell recently, I can confirm he has a good stage presence.  It is the beats that are the weak point on this album.  My main problem is Frost’s excessive use of an annoying squelching noise in the majority of the tracks.  Used sparingly, this could have been novel and different, but its overuse is frankly annoying, and even made it hard to listen to the whole album in one sitting.  Leftfield hip hop is experimental by its very nature, and it seems that these guys are trying to do something different, it’s just a little more miss than hit. 

It’s not that there isn’t good stuff on here, because there is.  Its just a little bit too few and far between, and there is a little too much below par stuff to wade through in between the good stuff.  Some may like this, but I just didn’t dig it.