C-Mon & Kypski – Where The Wild Things Are Review
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 03.31.2007
Dutch hip-hop group boldly go where no DJ has gone before…
My Story
If you look back through the decades, it’s sometimes easy to pinpoint certain musical genres and their progenitors. Bands like Nirvana, Ramones, Sugarhill Gang, and N.W.A. are all credited with starting musical revolutions, taking music to another place. The funny thing about these artists (and others like them), is that few actually set out to invent something new, rather they were a product of their influences, attitudes and emotions. Revolution happens when you least expect it, after all.
C-Mon & Kypski, on the other hand, are much more forward thinking. The Dutch hip-hop band has stated from day one that they want to take their songs places that hip-hop hadn’t been before. The question here is, will they take it somewhere that an audience wants to follow?
Their Story
C-Mon & Kypski’s roots go back the early 90’s and the meeting of Simon “C-Mon” Akkermans and Thomas “Kypski” Elbers while the pair were still young lads in school, living in their hometown of Utrecht, Netherlands. The two formed an immediate bond based on their love of hip-hop music and culture and soon after they were producing their own beats for local hip-hop acts.
As the pair honed their skills, they developed a knack for instrumental tracks, making them a natural resource for scoring commercials, movies and plays. During this time, Kypski became renowned as the premier Dutch scratcher, winning several competitions, both national and global. In 2001, after a couple of false starts, the duo self-released their debut single, Junkie HC/Giants Of Jazz.
The next year, C-Mon & Kypski recruited bassist Daniel Rose and keyboardist Jori Collignon to play live instruments during their performances. The result was a computer/live track hybrid that made immediate waves on the stage. Their full length debut, Voodoo Vinyl, was released in the latter half of 2003.
The next few years were a flurry of activity for the band as they played festival dates and worked on outside projects. Both C-Mon and Kypski released solo albums, as well as collaborating for their sophomore band effort Static Traveller in 2004. Following its release, the band left their label, Supertracks, for Penoze.
In 2006, they released their third album, Where The Wild Things Are, which became a hit in their home country. This year, they made their second appearance in the US at the SXSW Festival, promoting the US release of Wild Things. C-Mon & Kypski are currently back on tour in Holland.
The Album
On January 23, 2007, Jammm Brand and Penoze Records released Where The Wild Things Are, the third album by C-Mon & Kypski and the follow-up to 2005’s Static Traveller.
The Band: 7.0
Simon Akkermans – producing, beats
Thomas Elbers – turntables, beats
Daniel Rose – guitars, bass
Jori Collignon - keys
First off, if you pick up this album because it’s categorized as hip-hop, your immediate reaction may be “Huh?” It’s in this nature that C-Mon & Kypski make good on their claim to make their music something more. The tracks (which are mostly instrumental) are indeed very theatrical in nature, much as their press hype indicates. However, they’re not as much about being hip-hop as they are about taking the elements of hip-hop (mainly the turntables) and using that and they’re mixing capabilities to create large soundscapes. Sometimes, the tracks come off catchy, sometimes annoying and sometimes so blandly background noisy that you’ll forget you’re an album reviewer and begin checking out things on eBay.
Still, the IDEA is here and you have to give the band points for originality. Then there are the cultural differences. I mean, surely Dutch hip-hop is different from American hip-hop, right? So maybe people are digging this overseas.
The parade of guest vocalists provides some much needed structure to the songs, as, without vocalists, C&K seem to get just a little too indulgent. Sadat X, the biggest “name” on the disc, shbows up on the intro track of all places, barely letting his skills as an MC show. Pete Philly, on the other hand, hits a major homerun on his guest vocal outing. Kain The Poet shows up on the closing track and…well, sounds as strange as the track he’s backed by.
In all, you can’t say C-Mon & Kypski are bad, really, as they’re quite skillful. Their biggest weaknesses here are indulgence and their musical genre, which may be a little to specific and stylized to connect to more than the fringest of outliers.
The Songs: 5.0
1. Where The Wild Things Are (ft Sadat X)
2. Bumpy Road
3. Circus C-Mon & Kypski (ft Amsterdam Klezmer Band)
4. Make My Day (ft Pete Philly)
5. Chocolat
6. Spirits High (ft Benjamin Herman)
7. Eyes On The Road (ft Voicst)
8. Attention
9. Chemical Mixture
10. In And Out Of Days
11. Wildfire
12. Changes (ft Kain The Poet)
If you’re one of those people who enjoy movie scores, then this could be the trip for you. This album is just full of meandering instrumentals, interesting sounds and sonic exploration. The sunny “Bumpy Road” is as good as any opening credits montage, while songs like “Spirits High” and “Changes” will easily take you away to another time and place.
If you’re not into that, well, prepared to be either bored or annoyed. As far as pop sensibilities, this is a one song album, namely “Make My Day”, which is about as cool as indie hip-hop in the States get. It’s a flash of brilliance that only adds to the albums score comparison. Remember the Dogma CD with it’s one Alanis Morissette song? Or “Magic Carpet Ride” tacked on to the end of the Star Trek: Insurrection album? Yeah, that’s what you have here.
And even the hardcore score lovers will be hard pressed to find Wild Things continuously good. “Circus C-Mon & Kypski”, for example, sounds like it was made for benefit of Kazakhstan but without the humor. And there are just too many instances of this overindulgence on Wild Things to make this album anything but an oddity.
The 411: C-Mon & Kypski claim to want to take hip-hop beyond, but where they’ve gone on this album, few will feel the need to follow. You can’t doubt the talent of the two principals on this album and you can even admire their tenacity and creativity. At the end of the day, though, this album is too far outside of listenable (minus a few nice soundtrack-y spots and an awesome single in “Make My Day”) to receive any sort of record play.
