Violators Of The English Language - Violators Of The English Language

Violators Of The English Language - Violators Of The English Language

Andy Votel gets the band back together and drops the ace Hip Hop bizzle they always promised to deliver back in the day. Great production & beats (obviously) from the man and some great rhymes from the crew. Top notch old skool / nu skool Hip Hop from the North - only 30 years in the making! Strong work! 

Tracklisting:
1. Ages 01:48
2. Brain Stimulated 03:59
3. Dragonwyck 04:40
4. Statues & Limitations 04:20
5. Battlescar Vernacular 03:33
6. Doper Dogfood 03:35
7. Kackaboom 02:56
8. Def Laid An Egg 03:49
9. Rewind 04:57
10. Plantocracy 04:56

Emanating from a ‘prehistoric’ existence near the end of the last millennium, Andy Votel and his slightly older college mates were once best recognised in Mancunian clubs and bars as teenage vinyl nerds and bum-fluffed battle rappers under the collective name Violators Of The English Language (whichin acronymic form explains Andy’s own exotic pen-name).

As steadfast supporters of the 1980s / 90s Brit-core rap scene coming out of London, the multicultural Violators’ Mancunian accents were perhaps abridge-too-far to secure dream job contracts for humble labels like KoldSweat and Music Of Life. An unlikely constructive meeting with Gang Starr’sDJ Premier (while Andy helped out at a radio station), plus playing warm up DJ sets for countless US rap heroes might have temporarily added inspirational fuel to the fire, but after an active period combining graffiti, rapping, scratching, obsessive record digging and beat making into their daily operations, adulthood eventually began to rear its unwelcome head.

A decade later, Andy Votel and his digging skills would begin to providedirect sample material for the likes of Madlib, Mos Def, Jay Z, Nas, Dr Dre,Ghostface Killa and Action Bronson, amongst others, and the Violators’ black book of breakbeats and catalogue numbers soon began to feed a same-butdifferent rap beast.

For a project that has taken thirty years, it would be totally inadequate to callthe formation of Hypocritical Beatdown Records a lockdown-project. There’sa deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The EnglishLanguage and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality,surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, betterjudgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

As well as Andy Votel taking care of both production and part of themicrophone duties, some might recognise fellow MC and solo recording artistFigure Of Speech as a prominent voice here. The trio of Magnets (RapGroup) sees Andy also joined by local B-Girl legend Jeni Chan aka Penny Chew, and rapper and DJ Benjamin Hatton who has previously recorded withKid Acne, The Mongrels and Sheffield’s Invisible Spies’ long-running squadron. Widely respected visual artist Rick Myers (now living inMassachusetts) also contributed scratches for many of these recordings viafile sharing and custom dub-plates to keep the Violators’ authentic line-upintact, as well as galvanising the crew’s semi-reluctant art-school roots.

Extra production credits for the label also go to Sean Canty from DemdikeStare, and the late great Dan Dwayre aka Black Lodge (Mo Wax) who sadlypassed away during the completion of these recordings. The members ofViolators Of The English Language who you’ve not yet heard of will quicklymake themselves known as the needle drops on this long-mooted debut vinyl release.