Remember 1998? A world cup in France without the Boys In Green, Rawkus Records was at its pinnicle, the mad cow disease scare and Exile Eye dropped the Optic Nerve EP, A well rounded, if not inconsistant first release that spawned a million (maybe a slight exageration) wannabe Irish Emcees. This Ep was a milstone. It marked a turning point in Irish Hip Hop, it generated interest, not as much as Creative Controle have in the past 12 months, but without this EP it begs the question, would CC be blowing up right now? Move forward 4 years to 2002, A world cup in the Far East including the Boys In Green (but no Roy Keane), Rawkus Records has hit a seemlessly endless downward spiral, the cows are alright bar the odd case of Foot and Mouth Disease and Exile Eye drops Pressure Points, his first long player.

From the second you press play you're dragged into Exile Eye's world of dark, ragga skewed, abstract hip hop and you can't get out, even if you wanted to. The opening song Juggernauts, a collaboration with fellow Cork producer Jeremy Murphy (judging from this beat one to watch), is a gritty, orchestra driven anthem with some of the most intelligent lyrics ever put to wax topped off with the more than able cuts of Dj Splyce. It grabs you by the balls from the out set and makes you want to listen, more than that it sets the tone for the sonic adventure you're about to embark on. From the fairly "straight up" hip hop of Juggernauts you're thrown into the abstract sparse beats of the Troubled Soul produced Super Subversive, another standout track which chronicles, in a round about way, the day to day life trying to make it as an emcee. Else where Exile calls in the troops (Captain Moonlight and Relevance of Homebrew, Danz and The Sniper) for what seems to be a dream line up possee cut. It is. Other standouts are Mary Reily (produced by Hazo), a moving narrative on the subject of domestic violence, and Fuck Wit, a short but cynical commentary on the state of irish hip hop which is a pretty bang on in its venom.

At its high points this album is brilliant but when it hits a dip, which it rarely does, it becomes quite hard to listen to. The one real example of this is Forward On, a spoken word piece over an overly abstract beat which makes you wonder is Exile Eye trying too hard to be different or just good enough to get away with it?? Another low point in Pressure Points comes in the form of instrumental interludes. The instrumental interludes are in theory good, but are somewhat pointless and only serve to take away from the momentum the album has built up so far. A nice way to show your production skills, a bad way to make an album a classic, the interludes should have been kept for a later project. Pressure Points, once its over you will want to listen to it again, just not all of it. Brilliant more often than not, bad when it need not be, but the high points by far out weigh the lows.

Exile Eye has with this LP shown a new consistancy and maturity in his music but still stands as the bench mark for a well rounded, talented Emcee/Producer. Irish Hip Hop heads should be grateful labels like Equilibrium exist to put out acts like Exile Eye and show that gratitude by picking up this album.

7.5/10.

Perverted Science


Links: [ Equilibrium Recordings ] [ Album press release ]