Dislocated Styles - Pin The Tail On The Honkey
Roadrunner Records - 2001
By James O'Toole
Dislocated Styles are a six piece band hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, comprising two MCs, one of whom doubles as a DJ, a guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and drummer. Dislocated Styles formed in 1996, signed to Roadrunner US in 1999 and started recording Pin The Tail on the Honkey in May 2000. This is their first release for the label. Dislocated Styles also released two discs before being signed, an EP called panking the Funky and Elevator Music, a full length album.
Firstly, to put this review in perspective I'm not a great fan of this style of music. When Anthrax and Public Enemy first combined to release Bring The Noise it was an interesting and successful fusion of two very different styles of music. Who would have guessed that over a decade later we would be deluged with rap-rock bands combining chunky, rhythmic riffs with hip hop vocals?
Pin the Tail on the Honkey follows in the wake of releases from Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Crazy Town and the like - basically catchy pop songs with simple song structures and infectious, anthemic choruses. This is party music, the kind of stuff you can listen to and digest fairly quickly.
Dislocated Styles play music to get you moving, grooving and rocking and they accomplish it pretty well. On this release you will find lots of hip hop vocals, funky basslines, fat guitar riffs, scratching and big beats, further layered with keyboards which add much needed variety. Musically Dislocated Styles blend many different styles including jazz, rock, blues, hip hop and hints of reggae and nu metal. The compositions on this release flow together seamlessly and there are a lot of interesting musical passages. It is hard to pinpoint specific influences as there are so many blended together.
Despite this variety any of the tracks follow a similar formula. An example is fifth track Possessed By Demons, which starts promisingly with an understated, atmospheric intro, slides into a jazzy guitar driven verse with a funky bassline, but then slips back into a by now all too familiar rhythm guitar and rap driven chorus. On first listen the vocals on most of the songs sound very similar, but after repeated listening there are subtle differences and some experimentation though the vocals are heavily influenced by hip hop.
Dislocated Styles lyrics aren't going to make you go away and think about the meaning of life - Fire In The Hole is about relationships gone wrong, Liquefied is about overdoing it with Tequila, Wet Video covers territory previously dealt with on Girls of Porn by Mr Bungle, Clocks is all about smoking weed... you get the idea. This album is more about having a good time than anything else and so while the lyrics aren't overly thought provoking they fit the overall theme of the music and direction of the band.
Perhaps if this album had been released four years ago it would be considered more innovative, but there are a lot of bands performing very similar sounding stuff now and one senses Dislocated Styles may have been beaten to the punch. If you like your pants baggy, your baseball cap worn backwards and you think hip hop and rock is a good combination you'll like this album. Personally I think this type of music has reached saturation point and there are more innovative bands in this genre, the best being Hed Planet Earth. That said, if you like to party and you want another album to crank with your Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Crazy Town discs then Pin The Tail On The Honkey won't disappoint you.
6/10
Roadrunner Records - 2001
By James O'Toole
Dislocated Styles are a six piece band hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, comprising two MCs, one of whom doubles as a DJ, a guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and drummer. Dislocated Styles formed in 1996, signed to Roadrunner US in 1999 and started recording Pin The Tail on the Honkey in May 2000. This is their first release for the label. Dislocated Styles also released two discs before being signed, an EP called panking the Funky and Elevator Music, a full length album.
Firstly, to put this review in perspective I'm not a great fan of this style of music. When Anthrax and Public Enemy first combined to release Bring The Noise it was an interesting and successful fusion of two very different styles of music. Who would have guessed that over a decade later we would be deluged with rap-rock bands combining chunky, rhythmic riffs with hip hop vocals?
Pin the Tail on the Honkey follows in the wake of releases from Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Crazy Town and the like - basically catchy pop songs with simple song structures and infectious, anthemic choruses. This is party music, the kind of stuff you can listen to and digest fairly quickly.
Dislocated Styles play music to get you moving, grooving and rocking and they accomplish it pretty well. On this release you will find lots of hip hop vocals, funky basslines, fat guitar riffs, scratching and big beats, further layered with keyboards which add much needed variety. Musically Dislocated Styles blend many different styles including jazz, rock, blues, hip hop and hints of reggae and nu metal. The compositions on this release flow together seamlessly and there are a lot of interesting musical passages. It is hard to pinpoint specific influences as there are so many blended together.
Despite this variety any of the tracks follow a similar formula. An example is fifth track Possessed By Demons, which starts promisingly with an understated, atmospheric intro, slides into a jazzy guitar driven verse with a funky bassline, but then slips back into a by now all too familiar rhythm guitar and rap driven chorus. On first listen the vocals on most of the songs sound very similar, but after repeated listening there are subtle differences and some experimentation though the vocals are heavily influenced by hip hop.
Dislocated Styles lyrics aren't going to make you go away and think about the meaning of life - Fire In The Hole is about relationships gone wrong, Liquefied is about overdoing it with Tequila, Wet Video covers territory previously dealt with on Girls of Porn by Mr Bungle, Clocks is all about smoking weed... you get the idea. This album is more about having a good time than anything else and so while the lyrics aren't overly thought provoking they fit the overall theme of the music and direction of the band.
Perhaps if this album had been released four years ago it would be considered more innovative, but there are a lot of bands performing very similar sounding stuff now and one senses Dislocated Styles may have been beaten to the punch. If you like your pants baggy, your baseball cap worn backwards and you think hip hop and rock is a good combination you'll like this album. Personally I think this type of music has reached saturation point and there are more innovative bands in this genre, the best being Hed Planet Earth. That said, if you like to party and you want another album to crank with your Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Crazy Town discs then Pin The Tail On The Honkey won't disappoint you.
6/10
