The Herbaliser

The English fascination with '60s gangsters who dressed in flashy custom suits, drove Italian sports cars, murdered ruthlessly and retired anonymously to Spain continues to inspire a steadily flowing font of crime novels, indie flicks—and occasionally a great hip-hop album. Take London, duo Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba's fifth album, has, underneath it all, the framework of a hip-hop album. It's probably one of the best of the year, although purists would hardly recognize it. Surely, it's tommy-gun toting gangster, but not gangsta. Its reference points are mostly Londoncentric and pre-1980: big-band horns, echoey guitars worthy of bad boys the Kray twins, reggae/dancehall toasting, easy-listening touches, jazzy vibes, and lush orchestras nicked from a John Barry soundtrack. The only thing missing from this thriller is a script and a cameo from Terence Stamp.

But not all the slang on Take London is Cockney. Untouchable New York rapper and longtime associate Jean Grae makes a big showing on four tracks. She will be touring as a full-time member of the Herbaliser live band. Her "Nah' Mean Nah'm' Sayin'" finds her explaining her association with the Herb's "greeny greeny" with an inimitable verve and slightly out-of-place American accent. On the more frantic "Generals," Grae leads the Generals, a five-strong posse of rappers (one of them the twelve-year-old Erica Lopez) into battle, but the fellas in her crew can't resist spitting out "bitches" and "fuckings" rendering it a less thanperfect track. It's Roots Manuva's vocal on "Lord, Lord" that makes that track the album's almost radio-friendly centerpiece, if anyone in radio had a clue. Frenchman Katerine turns in a listless vocal on the Serge Gainsbourg tribute "Serge," which would have been just fine as an instrumental. In fact, it's the many instrumental tunes—the slow, funky car-chase groove of "Geddim!," the epic Afro-jazz of "Sonofanothamutha," the '60s spy flick theme with funky flavor "Song for Mary" contrasting with Afrika Bambaataa meets D.C. Go Go–influenced "Gadget Funk"—not the rapping, that makes Take London such an immediately enjoyable, cinematic ride.

The Herbaliser has found some of that mojo that once made the Bristol-triangle acts Portishead, Tricky and Massive Attack such fearsome restylists of left-field hip-hop. And the duo has let its jazz love shine through in a big, brassy way in stark contrast to commercial rap's increasing bleepiness. But rather than home in on one sound and tempo until it's sick of itself, Herbaliser takes us for a nocturnal cruise in an idealized version of the Big Smoke where swinging sounds and cultural obsessions flourish and the thugs take fashion seriously. Let's hope someday that someone makes a film version that's just as good.—John Dugan