There have an abundance of broken beat hits (and misses) this year. This is one of the hits that should have lots of staying power. In addition, there are a couple of highlights that stand out about the new Flowriders cd “R.U.E.D.Y”. One is the live instrumentation that gives the music a fresh sound every time I play it. The other highlight is the guest vocalists such as Tanya Saw, Spoonface and the dynamic blue-eyed soul man himself, Colonel Red. On the cosmic “Looking Deep” the Colonel provides well placed background scats to complement the vocals of Tanya Saw. “I Think I Know” is a nice mid-tempo gem that is enhanced by the drum work by Richard Spaven (Mark De Clive Lowe, 4Hero). “President” is an energetic broken beat track with vocals by Spoonface, who on this track, sounds a little like Omar to me. “Visualize” also features Colonel Red and has a haunting deep groove that begs for the volume to be turned up. Chances are you feel compelled to do that the minute this track starts. Thanks to the tight production by Vincent Helbers (aka Flowriders), this disc will provide definite satisfaction to fans of the bruk beat, broken soul. Recommended.
