With the help of Ross Orton (M.I.A. – Kala producer) and long-time collaborator Req-One (who releases records on Warp), Kid Acne has dropped some authentic British hip-hop. Romance Ain’t Dead is a brief balls-out album that comes as a welcome shock to the system, with tracks rarely going over 3 minutes and the album itself only 30 minutes in length. In that concise period, Ackers manages to breeze through with hilarious bragging and banging tracks that represent Britain and specifically northern-ness (he hails from Sheffield) without being pretentious or ironic.

The first track’s chorus “That’s right kids/Don’t fuck wit’ Eddy Fresh”, is enough alone to make it one of the best cuts on the album. But lines like “Took a super soaker to laser quest/Held it down like house arrest” and later, “Dr Zhivago, full of bravado/Breath like a wino, neckin’ chinzano” does more than enough to establish Kid Acne’s quality for the rest of the album. The lyrics in “South Yorks” is another witty display that also shows some hometown love, lines like “The East Midlands is the land of north/At the cusp of the peaks and the great outdoors/It don’t rain it pours, for sure/So couples go dogging on Sunday walks” and “A knife a broke bottle and a court/That’s the way you spell South Yorks”, are off the hook and full of genuine affection. “Roc Roc Radio” describes a morning commute to his 9 to 5, told with typical playfulness, “Put on my bowler hat step to the front gate/Adjust my tie and press play on the pause button, mix tape”. He goes to work with his “Brixton briefcase” (boom box) to the sound of a steady drum beat and simple three note rising organ line. There’s a good mix of drum sounds on the album, sometimes live sounding (“Oh No You Didn’t”, “Roc Roc Radio”, “2,3 Break It”, “Sliding Doors”), and at others heavily processed and deep (“Don’t Pity Me”, “Fcuk All Lately”, “You’re Not Wrong”, “South Yorks”, “Worst Luck”) the later style seemingly down to Ross Orton’s influence.

This album is a handbook for ‘keeping it real’, talking about what and who you know, dropping Cillit Bang and Kobadi references (“Eddy Fresh” and “Oh No You Didn’t” respectively), “Spittin’ rhymes between sips of Yorkshire Tea”, (“South Yorks”), and claiming to be “The rap Joe Mangle” (“Sliding Doors”). This is a good album; Kid Acne has the lyrical chops and the more than solid production backing to make him a star.
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Links
Kid Acne [official site] [myspace] [buy it]