Hey everyone, blogger has been playing up so please read down the page for hitherto unpublished posts.
Target ft. Riko - Chosen One
Foulplayification continues ahoy! At this stage the best of grime - which Target has a good claim to being - can more than hold its own against dancehall for kaleidoscopic technicolour vividness and samplarhythmic daring. "Chosen One" may be the furthest that grime has taken the insidious viral expansion of eastern influences, constructing a crashing, sharply syncopated garage rhythm out of tabla beats and handclaps, and then swathing this bracingly physical skeleton in swirling layers of "Open Your Mind"-style shimmering Orientalist synths and the popular grime-meme of mournful gypsy strings.
It's intoxicatingly dense, but that doesn't stop Riko from transforming it into something both catchy and uplifting. "Stay calm, don't switch your composure, blud!" he chants in the chorus, and you just know that this is gonna be another motivational anthem straight from the Eastern bloc. What is the significance of tunes like this, "It Ain't A Game" and "Pick Yourself Up"? What is it about this narrative of triumph in the face of adversity that it takes such a central role in grime's oral history? And why this increasingly accomplished, beautiful music to soundtrack the struggle? I don't have the answers at the moment, but "Pick Yourself Up" and "Chosen One" alone (not to mention "Fresh Air" and "Dumpvalve (Remix)" and "Hyperdrive"!) Target deserves canonisation.
