For the past decade or so, Obese Records has been establishing itself as the premiere record label for Hip Hop music in both Melbourne and Australia as a whole. The fruits of those labors were fully realised in 2003 when Adelaide’s Hilltop Hoods hit it big, after twelve years of hard work, putting themselves and their home label Obese on the map simultaneously.
With the activities of the past couple of years particularly, Obese Records CEO Tirren Pegz Staaf has been content to play the mentor role, while strengthening his position within the Australian music industry. With all of those accomplishments though, his creative fire as an artist never waned, which has lead him to the release of his third studio album Burn City, the anticipated follow-up to 2004’s widely praised Axis.
Production duties are split between talented veterans Jase and Plutonic Lab (with the exception of two contributions from Hilltop Hood Suffa), who worked heavily with Pegz on his previous releases, providing the album with a consistent sonic palette. While his surroundings and profile may have been upgraded, the Melbourne rhyme ripper makes sure to let listeners know that they are hearing the same raw artist that they’ve heard in the past, just with a more varied perspective.
This is no more evident that on the rock hard metaphor-driven Milk Bar Star. The track finds him referring to several pieces of classic recording equipment as if he was talking about a woman. In reference to the MPC-60 sampler he says: “She made me want to go down and test every element/every delicate part, magnetically talented”.
Based around an eerie Psychedelic-style organ and the rich back-up vocals of Reagan, Pegz dons his political and social commentary hat to let people know I Don’t Need Your Judgments. He takes on everything from the war in Iraq and religious conflicts to his own personal state of mind and yes, even the good old accent debate.
Jase brings the flavourful funk throughout, no much so than on the stand-out cut 7 Days 6 Nights. As the track title may suggest, Pegz imagines dropping everything and traveling around the world getting caught up in all sorts of mischief. Also check out the international hook-up Diligent Music as the Obese man teams up with Cali’s Planet Asia and Adelaide native Vents. Meanwhile, the excellent Suffa-crafted No Attachments, which samples a funky version of the classic track Sunshine of Your Love, has some crossover appeal and an overall good vibe to it.
Burn City is an entertaining and at times enlightening musical journey. To this reviewer, it has the most potential appeal to non-Australians than either of his previous two stellar releases, as the Obese camp and the Australian scene as a whole are producing more and more international worthy music. The only criticism of this release would be that it at times could come off as a little too focused on Melbourne and Australia instead of having a larger view. Nevertheless, there is much to enjoy and take away from Burn City, as it is one of the best Australian music releases of the year.
Available Through Obese Records
