Outlandish:
Bread & Barrels Of Water

Release Date: 2 June 2003

Reviewed By: Fiona McKinson

1. Introduction

2. Guantanamo

3. Peelo

4. Walou

5. Aicha

6. Gritty

7. Interlude

8. If Only

9. Fatima's Hand

10. El Moro

11. Eyes Never Dry

12. A Donkey Named Cheetah

13. Dirty Dirty Easy

14. Life Is A Loom

Outlandish -
Bread & Barrels Of water

Outlandish hail from Denmark, and formed in 1997. Members, Isam Bachiri, Lenny Martinez and Waqas Qadri, grew up in 'Brondby Strand', a multicultural suburb of 'Copenhagen'. Their roots, span from three continents; Isam from 'Morocco', 'Waqas' from 'Pakistan' and Lenny from 'Honduras'. Bonding on the football pitch as teens, Waqas says, "It's not enough to say we're friends. We're brothers." The 'brothers' developed another shared passion: enter Hip Hop. Outlandish decided to create their own brand of rap. Relying on their cross cultures, they infused sounds of Arabic pop, Indian soundtracks and Latin American rhythms, manoeuvring between genres effortlessly.

In 2000, Outlandish released their debut album, 'Outland's Official.' This set was inspired by the bands experiences of growing up in Denmark, and propelled the band to star status there. It landed them with critical acclaim and nominations in six categories at the Danish Music Awards (Denmark's equivalent of The Grammys), where they won the Best Hip Hop Act. Outlandish certainly had much to offer their fans with lyrics in English, Spanish, Urdu and Arabic. The natural progression for such a culturally rich act was to storm the International stage within this increasingly globalised world. The new album, 'Bread & Barrels Of Water' is dedicated to just that.

This album is adventurous and touches on subjects like their families and spirituality. It incorporates universal themes like love, trust, and hate. The album also imparts cultural lessons which can be heard on tracks such as 'A Donkey Named Cheetah' and 'Life is a loom'. The latter represents a thoughtful and insightful side of the group as they question the American dream, discuss migration and big up the Euro! Creatively the album has been inspired by the group's search for simplicity, intimacy and compassion in their lives. Their music is much more than just hip-hop. It features a beguiling mix of dialects, languages and moods.

This is a very different sounding album which takes a while to get used to. Once you give it a chance, you realise it's creative energy and appreciate the hybrid of fused cultures that makes it very refreshing. The genre transcending "Guantanamo" is the first single and my favorite track. Peelo is a bangra type song, the lyric, 'Some say I don't sound how Hip Hop is supposed to sound', reiterates that Outlandish are not contesting Jay-Z's status as an MC.

The American influence and culture, is particularly evident on the Miami bass style 'Dirty Dirty East' and the flamenco infused 'Gritty'. Also listen out for references to 'The Source' magazine, Biggie and Pac and the promise of getting, 'Crunked up'.

In regards to creating its own genre within hip hop, this album successfully achieves it's goal and is more complete, self assured and impeccable than their debut. Outlandish seem to know where they are going with this one and as group have certainly developed themselves. It only remains for you to get to know them and their bonus track!

Top three tracks:
2. Guantanamo
5. Aicha
8. If Only

Bread & Barrels Of Water is out now on BMG Records.
Links www.outlandmoro.com

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