feeling/really feeling/really REALLY feeling: STOP PRESS

silly me, shoulda shoved this in there, the one entry cut for space from the Wire Grimer:

LOWDEEP
"STR8 FLUSH"
COLORFUL STATE RECORDINGS 12 " 2005
CRAZY TITCH
"SING ALONG"
IN THE HOOD RECORDS 12" 2005

The sped-up diva on “Str8 Flash” might be a nod to Kanye West’s Chaka-accelerating “Through the Wire” but equally could be a folk-memory flashback to the early Nineties, when rave producers whisked female vocal samples into helium-squeaky hypergasms of phantasmic bliss. That said, everything else in Lowdeep’s hot-hot riddim testifies to the influence on grime of the last half-decade of rap and R&B. Pizzicato harp-like sounds and stuttering beats create a frozen peak of tense glory. IMP Batch’s “Gype,” the inescapable riddim of early 2005 and the backing track for Crazy Titch’s “Sing Along,” takes grime’s quasi-orchestral ambitions to the next level. Using classical music samples (possibly Prokofiev), IMP Batch expertly chop up and resequence the refrains--fluttery flutes, cascading strings, a cello ostinato--to form a hilariously prissy yet dynamic groove. This parodic high-culture refinement makes a wonderfully incongruous setting for Crazy’s hoarsely hollered anthem.