Trim – Soulfood Vol.3

Trim, Trimothy, Trimbal, Trimski, what ever you want to call him that’s just fine. He goes by many names and is the badman grime MC from E14. Soulfood Vol.3 is one of the best mixtapes I have heard in recent times, it’s up there with Dot Rotten and Durrty Goodz fighting for the top spot. The production is top notch and features a hell of a lot of people my favourites being; Jerzey, Blessbeats, Brain, Radioclit, plus Dusk & Blackdown. The beats go from stripped back sparse vibes to full on ragga influenced ones, echoing London’s massive array of musical influences. Trim’s bars are excellent and original. His flow is laid back and lazy in vibe compared to other on the scene that like to spit venom with speed and aggression. Trim still bites just as hard as anyone though as he proves on the excellent beef track The Low-Dan, he doesn’t even rhyme on that one, its more of a talking thing.

As with many in the Grime scene Trim likes to talk about doing his thing and not wanting anyone to copy him, as well as stirring up beefs with bravado and bragging about being the best. Trimski also opens his heart a little bit to talk about the struggle of life in general on songs like Inside Looking Out. His sense of humour shines through on most tracks, which is one thing I love about grime, the English sense of humour cracks me up. The whole mixtape is top quality I can’t fault the tunes one bit, some stand out taller above the rest but overall it’s very consistent.

A little run down of some of the vibes: Signal, the opener is a low lobbed ragga style beat with a ace vocal hook, ‘If you didn’t catch my name, I will throw it to you, and for those that can’t catch, I’ll roll it to you, or you can kick back and I’ll flow it to you’. Ask For Trim is a darker one but with a just as catchy hook, the bass growls as some subtle gunshots are used as percussion. For Real comes on like a dancehall classic with the shout of, ‘Yo, Vibes!’ in a heavy Jamaican tone. Full of Shit is a dark skipping minimal grime stepper with a bassline that sounds like a computer game from 1990. Inside Looking Out is a slow emotional one with sci-fi atmospherics a badass beat with a wonky edge and some plucky little strings. Just Do Your Thing is another straight ahead grime beat but Trim has some of the catchiest hooks and bars I have heard ever, he makes most beats a treat. Old School Bars, starts slow and builds into a beast with the tempo moving up and synth violins building the tension as Trimble rides it. The Low-Dan is the talking thing, the lazy wonky flow that’s about abusing Flow Dan. It is a massive tune and the stand out on this tape, which is one hell on an achievement. Bleeps, bloops and 8-bit flourishes punctuate the lazy flow. Put Your Mind To It, stick a needle on this dub, its fat. It’s a real dark side whopper of a track, with evil bass and bars. Dusk & Blackdown make a brilliant backbeat to Trim’s The Bits, it’s an off kilter and full of wonky samples that echo sounds from around London, there is a slight Asian hint to the loops used.

Trim’s Soulfood Vol.3 is one of the reasons I’m loving grime right now, the quality is so high in some areas. I don’t know what he is going to do next but his myspace mentions Vol.4 and on this mixtape he mentions an album, but who knows…