Not long after releasing the Fresh Flesh ep, Jam Baxter is back with a full solo album produced by Chemo, So We Ate Them Whole. This release tells the story of Baxters highs and lows on his surreal journey through the past year. Most of you will be familiar with Jams previous work from groups like Contact Play and Dead Players and previous albums such as Rinse Out Friday and Gruesome Features. Jam Baxter manages to achieve the impossible by elevating his already high standard even further showing how even the best can still evolve. Using a distinct style of lyricism, cleverly layered like watching a film for the second or third time and finding details within details that may have been missed the first time around, generally enhancing and enriching the overall experience. Throughout all of Jam Baxters'work, this use of clever language and story telling has been a main factor into the appeal towards audiences and artists who enjoy a putting a little more thought into the listening process.
This is an album that demands your attention. Not due to it being inflated or hard to follow, but because there is literally so much depth to his writing and deliverance that it has to be absorbed fully by the listener; and our interpretations will never do this incredible release justice.... but we will try.
Wings Cost Extra opens the album with atmospheric sounds building slowly into a very DJ Shadow-esque drum beat, nice work from Chemo on production to start this epic and versatile release. Jam injects his vivid vocab as he articulates his journey through a grim landscape.
"Disembodied heads in dusty corners, headless bodies inject liquor directly into their organs.
The never ending crux of a very strange performance, the beauty's in the gutters, this entire world is flawless."
Track 2, Caravan switches the vibe almost instantly with a broken, snare heavy drum track, allowing a more aggressive Jam Baxter to flow and unleash his raw energy all over the track. A nice contrast between the chilled flute samples and Baxters' rowdier deliverance is cinematic and if your not already hooked by this point, then there is clearly something wrong.
Bringing the vibe down to a more ambient, personal level, Incoming starts with creepy guitar samples and even creepier low-fi vocals (maybe?), enhancing a feeling of a nightmare-state; using his descriptive tongue to almost slap the blood in your face. This track is the second on the album to get an official video.
Leash was the first single to be released off of the album, and is accompanied by a twisted video to further intensify the graphic nature of the track. The beat boasts elements of trap, dub and 50's horror sound effects. Long sub shots and a tight snare reign throughout, swallowed whole by Baxter as he spews an impeccable flow that increases in pace and savagery, only to ease you back down again. A perfect promo for the album and shows just how willing Jam is to experiment with new sounds.
Leash (Cont.) is track 5 and from the get go, Chemo has laid a landscape of sound reminiscent of a western showdown and although the beat is distinctly different from the preceding track, it manages to almost become a reflection of it. Packing a similar flow which switches from laid back to full on aggy, Jam smashes this one with his trademark fashion of razor sharp wit and brutally tight execution.
Eulogy is an absolute banger from start to finish and is contender for our favorite off the album. Chemo lays a hypnotic beat for Jam Baxter to unleash some of his best work to date. Personally we were lucky enough to catch these bars during the High Focus Records 4th Birthday Party where during an interlude Jam performed an acapella that we were stoked to hear made it on the album. It was then dropped on his SBTV Skooled By Bars feature, which we have provided above. We could quote this track all day and found ourselves pulling the track back over and over, not for clarity, just because we wanted to hear the bars again.
Staples is another example of how experimenting with sound can create moods that compliment the themes of the lyrics and elevate its overall product to a new height of visceral sonic disposition.
This is carried on through to Husk, which presents us a melodic steel drum intro, adding a percussive element to layer over a laid back, minimalistic beat and a sub heavy bass-line."You aint the same at all, melt down and face the wall. The young child chewin his leg with those pendulous eyesballs makes you crawl like, What's the price on the eighth? Your star prize awaits, let it prise your face apart. How does that blood in your saliva taste?" Baxters ability to create head bending images is on full display, the insane amount of content he manages to fit into one track would take any other artist an entire album and he uses every opportunity to make every word and sentence count.
Everything has a glitchy-electro beat and deep spacey chords with bass stabs to boot. Combine this with creepy demon-like overlays of some of Baxters bars and the raw lyrics makes this one feel slightly darker. Intended or not, we like it.
Vines starts with an eerie intro followed promptly by the most beautifully ambient beat we've heard in a while and Jam is simply hypnotic throughout this one.
Upping the ante with his vocal delivery on Clockwork with a more merciless approach, each bar cutting deep and leaving its mark. Chemos finished product gives the listener elements of suspense, similar to that of watching a horror movie where clever use of sound effects can be used to make whats happening on the screen seem more intense.
The is so much to like about Menu. The slow winding start, Dirty Dike, great beat, Dirty Dike, Baxters bars and Dirty Dike. We love anything that features both of these artists, and you gotta hand it to Chemo for crafting a beat so hench it can support them both. We love how there is a delay in the bass drop during Jams verse and how it builds during Dikes bars. There is just something about Jam and Dike that works so well, and we would love to see an entire album by the two of them at some point in the future. If anyone can keep up with Jams high caliber performance its Dike, so it kinda makes sense that he is the only feature emcee on the album. We gotta lot of love for this one and it is sure to be a highlight of the album for many.
Fantastic Man begins with a trippy intro where on an auditory level, there is a lot going on, before dropping with an old school style break. With humor peppered throughout, this is a nice way to bring the intensity of the album down to a more chilled plain of sound allowing the final track, Breakfast to play us out. This track is another highlight for us as it shows how diverse Chemos production is by bringing something completely different to the table than everything that preceded it. Jams adaptability over any beat is why he is the rising force that he is, commanding every bar and turning everything he touches into pure gold.
Your opinion may differ to ours in many instances, from the sounds featured to the themes and content of Jams lyrics. But that is what makes Jams work so interesting and relevant to so many people. One thing we can all agree on though, is that this feature confirms to all of us what we already know, Jam Baxter is pushing the envelope and evidently, the scene into a new level of thinking and word smithing. Truly, Baxter is at the top of his game and when all is said and done, will have left a massive imprint of the UK hip hop scene fore years to come.
You know the drill. By this album!!!!!
Purchase So We Ate Them Whole - Limited Edition Vinyl
Purchase So We Ate Them Whole - CD
Download So We Ate Them Whole - iTunes
Reviewed by NDLC and Double S
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