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| Since 1995, Mark Rae’s Grand Central label has helped shape the sound of a less hardcore UK hip hop – and Aim’s 1999 debut Cold Water Music was a key album for the movement. But follow up Hinterland showed a dip in quality with some wimpy instrumentals, and Grand Central eventually went bust this year amidst royalty controversy. Moving on undeterred, Aim has released his third album Flight 602 on his own label, Atic. |
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Flight 602 may be the first album of this new era, but it’s hard to be sure if Aim (real name Andrew Turner) is evolving or rather leaving something important behind.
Opener ‘Walking Home Through The Park’ is classic Aim - mixing guitars, strings, horns and skipping hip hop beat. But the better tracks on previous efforts were mostly those with stateside emcees - and Flight 602 passes by without a single rap. The album is still hip hop, but it’s more focused on the instrumental elements and sadly lacking in punch – meaning on first listen fans may well find themselves skipping forwards in the hope an emcee will save the album.
Here Aim is moving away from the Grand Central formula, trying instead to create an experience where the album works as a whole rather than as a showcase for other artists’ talents. Demonstrating instrumental skills and relying on an organic live sound rather than samples, he has created a sound much more orchestrated and focused on atmospherics. He has a great ability to create a sense of the outdoor landscape - such as inventing winter scenes or summer days. This record pushes that even further and ‘Pier 57’ adds sounds of birds tweeting and garden noises to hammer the point home.
This is also Aim’s first LP without Kate Rogers – meaning there are no glacial vocal tracks such as ‘Sail’ or ‘Girl Who Fell Through The Ice’ and instead Niko takes centre stage. She sings on five tracks, including standout soulful effort ‘Northwest’, while ‘Puget Sound’ grates on the listener like an irritating children’s nursery rhyme. But Aim knows how to make the most of her beautiful voice. He plays it like an instrument, letting her dip in and out of tracks to become part of the soundscape.
When ‘Smile’ comes around it makes the listener want to jump with relief. The track is the most formulaic on the album, and wouldn’t sound out of place on any DJ’s mix, but the heavy beats, swing-style horns, breaks and Mingus-like hollers bring the album to life. Meanwhile ‘Birchwood’ is undoubtedly the most interesting tune here – where Redsnapper style bass, screaming jazz sax, flute and tuba tangle with each other. It is in this one inventive track that you can hear the future sound of a more daring Aim, before the album slips back into the humdrum.
Flight 602 goes for subtlety and atmospherics rather than a full-on assault for the ears, and as a result comes across as soft and inoffensive. Aim has dared to move away from Grand Central and attempted to make a more involving album, but there is nothing daring about this listen. In the end it will be loved by many and then completely forgotten about – until an advert picks up one of the tunes, that is. |
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| Michael Johns - 6/10 |
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