At one point in time, you heard that the earth is round, that it's like a ball. As a little kiddie, you were most likely confused, because you wondered, how it's possible, that you yourself stand upright, and at the other side of the globe, people are hanging upside down, but are not falling off the face of the earth. Aaah, we were simple minded back then, right? Okay, of course some are still confidentially simple minded. However, this introduction allows us to talk about the Phonetics, who are of the 'hanging upside down' breed. Nope, they are not bats, and they certainly didn't lose contact with the soil they walk on. But their stomping grounds are in Melbourne, Australia. And this means that they probably were next door neighbors of the amazingly cute Kylie Minogue, and she'd agree, that this album will tempt you to keep it in daily rotation like it's a soup opera.

But once again, we are jumping the gun. Something the Phonetics don't allow themselves to do, as they give us a fair warning in the form of "A Storm Is Coming - Intro", produced by 1ovthafew. This really only is the introduction, as with "First Contact", moriRT and 1ovthafew storm the stage like they are from the Fu-Schnickens school of getting up. What of course again is not true. Sure, the moriRT beat could have been something the Fu would have enjoyed to rhyme about on some futuristic tip, and those two Aussies keep their words flowing, what tells us that their must have been some longtime crafting that went into their musical development. This effortless combination of rhyming words, and structured sentences is also showcased on "God Forbid", that takes in the opera chanting of Ebony for the hook. 1ovthafew, who also did the almost orchestral beat, spits "emcees are kicking facts and heads is maxing with no beef about accents / that's causing infraction between the factions cause we rocking unity / even security is smiling cause the positivity is catching / no plots were incubating or hatching / no rival crews were calling up the station and dissin in anonymity cause / they feeling a common affinity / one movement rocking Melbourne vicinity". Ebony's voice is tempted to stick around for "Everything", the first track that completely satisfies with a very dope horn and drum styling, making the beat dope, and a flow even further staccato, and has moriRT go "I'm incompatible with well-to-do cannibals that abandon you for magnitude / My gratitude? / Acutely mad at you turn up the amplitude fatter than latitude / like Dr Fumanchu can get a clue / I battle and better you and your retinue / have at you tit for tat in my habitat so / where you enigmatic mathematical at?".

The beat to "The Audit" sounds somewhat early 90s, without us being able to point our fingers exactly on what gives it that feel. Naps and Nilvoid show up to drop some guest rhymes, while Sophistacutz is adding some turntablism. We then progress to another dope beat, as hooked up by 1ovthafew for "Oppozishun", and Nilvoid was not yet kicked outta the vocal booth, as he also drops rhymes on this. Again the emcees manage to spit their rhymes in a very talking fashion, that lull you with soothing ease. Now, the break is quite harsh, but the humor shown on "A Werd From Our Sponsors - skit", feat. Anonymous from the Australian Hip Hop Message Board, is too cool, to mind that moriRT takes a lioness movie song, and ridicules it nicely. And just as nice, and nice being a good thing, "Hazard Us" features a beat, that moves like an oil carpet, reflecting the moon in a dark night.

Of course moriRT can't just let his companion grab all of the beat props, and so he steps up with "Mind Tricks", that is mucho dope, not only after the beat change halfway through. 'RT also again gives us a verse, that rolls from his tongue, like a pearl of sweat off someone's forehead. He goes "whether vinyl or CD edition put down the album cover stop reading and listen / my immediate mission is to glisten like first light feeding a prism / defeating your system's our birth right cause we be christened in the seed of your wisdom not taking heed at your tedious dissin / I hold key to your prison of pessimism / I'ma make the media listen / we be competition / not healthy get a pediatrician / this kid is sick quick". This opens the way for a 1ovthafew solo track ("The Nonsense"), and he uses this opportunity to answer a lot of people, happenings and bickering in his surrounding, pinnacling in "I reckon its simplistic but if you weren't making beef from our stylistic differences, I'd mind my own opinion and leave judgment to listeners". This sounds very much like it was freestyled, but maybe this feel was meant to be imposed on the listener. Fellow Oz resident Weapon X is dropping some scratching too, before things move on to "What You Get". This of course is okay, but nothing that moves us too much, as it's not raising above solid, what can be good enough though.

See, when we are treated with tracks like "Got It Good", produced by moriRT, we have high expectations. This atmospheric, industry panic track, that features scratching by Sophistacutz, is rightfully kept instrumental, as the beat by itself tells us a visual story of revolutions, of desperate contempt, of despair and chasing away, trying to flee from oneself, not realizing the impossibility of such a task. And the paramilitary groups are already gathering, to embrace this refugee in it's collective arms, as with "Stars End", the Phonetics team up with 'The Second Foundation', namely Weapon X, Detect, Estebahn, naps, BVP and Digga. Moving on to "Circus Maximus", 1ovthafew again gives us a dope beat, before a second instrumental piece, "Affecting Reality", produced by moriRT and enhanced with magnificent scratches by FX, ends the album.

And the last cut, or better, both instrumental tracks on this, make us fiend for more. It seems like they allowed themselves to be more boundryless on those tracks, what took the music so much further than most of what they did on the other songs. That does not mean, that the rest is bullocks. Nope. It just means, that it can be a sign of true artistry, if you allow yourself, are confident enough to do something not conform. Something that moves beyond the edges, the customs you usually restrain yourself in. These two Aussies showed their skills, with moving forward into areas of the Outback, that not many people have ever set foot in. And the wells, the small streams they find, hidden, nourishing, and picturesque, give us an amazed feel, like the first time a Platypus was seen by human eyes.