t.c.m.

The Criminal Minds

Absolutely Killer drop from Rephlex, compiling the hugely sought-after early 12"s by legendary UK HipHop unit The Criminal Minds. While at college in 1985, DJs Halo and Chase 1 formed TCM, incorporating DJ Spatts and MC Iceski later on. As the story goes, DJ Halo sold his decks in 1990 to fund their first release, the 'Guilty As Charged EP', and soon after the crew were joined by MCs Safe D and CMD before producing the 'Tales From The Wasteland' EP in 1991. They were limited to runs of 300 and 500 copies respectively, hence the cool asking price of £800+ for originals nowadays. After the 'ardcore explosion of '92 the group went on to produce a string of jungle records for White House including the notorious 'Baptised By Dub', but this disc is solely concerned with that visceral pair of early releases, loaded with fourteen cuts of raw breaks, ruffneck scratching and unique homegrown vocals. For a whole generation of producers from Autechre to Demdike Stare, beats like the horror-film sampling 'A Taste Of Armageddon' or the mindblowing, brink-of-fast-rap/Hardcore cut 'Systems Overload' laid a blueprint which has been twisted, rewritten and augmented beyond recognition, but in their choice of samples, the rudeboy raver attitude and damn stylised aesthetics we can still draw a taut line between the two, the ideas of the original UK HipHop invasion feeding forward into today. Essential purchase - don't miss.