Reviewed by Anthony Longville

Zang Productions is the renowned Birmingham-based artist collective who have been doing great things in empowering a wide sweep of singers, musicians and rappers to get their material out to the public. This compilation does what it says on the tin and gives you a 13 song smorgasbord of styles ranging from doomy alternative rock, street level rapping, wistful singer/songwriters and the decidedly off kilter. Predominantly the vocalists rap there way through tracks with a humorous left field approach, dealing with spiritual themes through to Benjamin Blower's "Disgruntled" - which appears to be an ode to snot - Hmm! A different slant is on offer from the acoustic, rootsy "Thinking Aloud" of Bethan Marshall which closes the set. At the end of the day people will make up their own minds on the music on offer, and this compilation gives you a great chance to investigate such grass roots acts as University Of The King, Grey Beard, Grizzly Mortimer, Ickberg, The Custodians and others. Not always a comfortable listen but truly a fascinating one.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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