Cadence Weapon – Separation Anxiety

Mixtape time now this time in the form of Canadian rap supreme Cadence Weapon doing a pay what you like scheme not unlike the most recent Girl Talk album and Radiohead before it, I may as well mention Nine Inch Nails too while I’m at it hey.

Grab it from here:

http://www.cadenceweaponmusic.com/

It’s a really clicky electro house kind of affair really with loads of tracks / remixes / appearances all cobbled together as big hip-hop meets dance crossover party.

Artists involved in the mix up are people like A-Track, Herve, The Cansecos, Final Fantasy, Sally Shapiro, Sinden, RJ2D and Roots Manuva to name but a few highlights.

I really enjoy the hip-house style cross over stuff he does not enough hip-hop is really dancey anymore so it’s a nice refreshing change to see Cadence Weapon jump on some of these beats. Saying that a lot of these tracks are more like electro house remixes than anything remotely hip-hop. His remix of Rise Up by The Cansecos is a good example of this with subtle old skool pumping drums and electro abuse in a 8-bit sort of space invaders way.

When he does jump on the mic though he does it in his usual geeky pumping style talking about hipster and partying. The electro banger produced by Sinden, Count and Herve is a snap shot of this party style. A real highlight is the track right after Pretty Girls Make Raves, it’s the Final Fantasy collaboration that I have posted about before on this very blog. The violin skills of Final Fantasy meets the party beats and rhymes of Cadence in fine style with a killer hook.

The mellow melancholic tones of Italo songstress Sally Shapiro is another highlight for me, I’m pretty much in love with her sound though and this adds nasty bit of dirt to the proceedings which kind of makes me like it more.

No mixtape would be worth it’s weight in hip-hop history if it didn’t have a mellow girly number about heartbreak and girls and Cadence dos this with The Morning After which is all about a girl leaving, and it has a sad orchestral vibe to it.

Kennedy Curse is a wicked track with a well nice guitar loop and one hell of a flow. He makes me laugh by comparing lots of rappers to Girls Aloud as well, pity its so damn short. It drops into his jacking remix of Kid Sister that loops and jacks it up house style again but with some nice verses from the girl her self on top of some Rock The Bells break samples and electro bleeps.

The acid demo of Shout Out Out Out Out is an undisputed high light for me, I’m a sucker for a 303 bleepy bloop fest and it works so well with the rap and 80’s Esq. synth chords.

Chinball Wizard is pretty good as well but I only think I like it as the mad little horn loops remind me of that track used in the Spaced clubbing episode, you know the one where Brian breaks his fear of dancing and the starwars club manuva’s dooo dooo do do dooo dooo do do!

House Music Medley is a low slung dirty fucker as well, it takes the party central original version into down right dark and sloppy territory and though to bassline and allsorts of stuff like that it’s a medley like Jive Bunny and the mixmasters.

This mixtape is a little hit and miss in places but there is more that enough here to keep you interested and justify the price (ahem). Hip-hop mixtapes are usually a little all over the place in quality so I’m not to surprised about this, but then Cadence Weapon isn’t really your average hip-hop mixtape maker is he.

But if you are after a nice party sound track at a price you can choose then you really aren’t going to go to wrong with Separation Anxiety.