We've been talking about this before, but this is the right moment, to pick up the discussion again. Some names and a good impression of it just sneak into your consciousness, without you realizing how that got there. One of those names is Gershwin B.L.X. (with B.L.X. standing for Bassline Xcursions), a group outta Los Angeles, that's been making the rounds there for a little bit. They are now ready to get their names out further than the city limits, to places like Switzerland (reaching me), as well as Belgium, where they impressed the B9000 label, who will be releasing a three track 12" of Gershwin later in the year. However, all of that is not yet explaining, why the name stuck, like accusations to guilty people. It might not matter though, cause all that should matter is if the beats are banging and if the lyricism has you turn your head like a never before seen graffiti.

Now the B.L.X. is a eight man crew: there's the two DJs, one beatman and five emcees with the names being DJ Perv and DJ See Brown, as well as Crag Malkovich, M.O.L. Man, Omnipresent, Rezek, Sklim Milx and ABCDEFG. That posts the threat that the cuts could sound crowded, but that's prevented with only about half the cuts being group posse cuts. The other half is only hosting half the emcees, leaving them room to get across their often enough good time rhyming. Nevertheless, many heads allow many ideas, and this album is definitely not short of that.

This explores the good times like a live performance. And so the opening cut "Soundcheck" is not only addressing the sound man, it also doesn't take much effort to picture Omnipresent and Monk walking up and down on the stage. With the beat being rather restrained though, the party only gets started on "Sunch Punch", which was produced by ABCDEFG. Here we get funny rhyming, with the whole crew backing the cat up that got the mic in his hands. The beat might be slow, but it features an organ, and the catchy chorus is securing total crowd participation. By the time "Offhand" comes on, you need to come to the first conclusion though: while the rhyming is well versed, and the emcees are comfortable spitting, the beats are often small (as in not big), as well as simple, as in reduced and in a limited effectiveness. There's still however plenty of styles on here, as on "Hostile Takeover", there's something evelish dramatic, being followed by something hammondish gospelish coming on later on "Words". The DJ Track "Smackdown" appears as utilizing one of the nicest beats, as Earganic hooked up something jazzy with the DJs Perv and See Brown adding funky scratching.

But at the same time there's the empty beats, that struggle to appeal to us too much, like "Cunnilingus" (despite Kutmasta Kurt doing the scratching) or "Magic Rhyming Men", with both just sounding very bare, but also old. Because much of this style is in the tradition of early Hiero, Hobo or something Volume 10 would have chosen to rhyme over a couple of years ago. And that dirty funk might still sound good on those original records, but on a new effort, it unfortunately too often sounds unsatisfactory.

What can't be said about the lyrics though, as the emcees are dropping enough flows along with their not to change the world type lyrics. And most of the tracks are very much aimed at the partying and live audience crowds, with one of the most obvious examples being "Bounce Like Tigger". So the lyrics are geared towards your 'oh shit' responses, what then fits the simple background well. But even that prowess can't fully prevent us from having a mixed feeling about this. We do have a respect for the source of inspiration this is gulping from, and we enjoy the approach we are witnessing, but that still does not rub off all the errors. Hence we can't review this without a bundle of unwanted 'but's.