Handsome Boy Modeling School - The World's Gone Mad (Feat. Del The Funky Homosapien, Barrington Levy & Alex Kapranos)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT la la la
RATING

Wow. A fourth track from this album. That's practically unheard of. It's even more of a surprise given the full-on rawk action that's been shaking the walls in here for the past few days.

The World's Gone Mad has a bit of a reggae-ish vibe, which is not much of a surprise given that Jamaican star Barrington Levy is on here. He provides the focus of the song, but has two able assistants in tow. First up is Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who takes care of the rapping that forms a good portion of the start of the tune. The rest of the vocal duties is taken up by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, no less, who provides more of a supporting role (although he does get one short bridge).

As usual, the HMBS have pulled together a pretty random collection of perfomers and made it work well. Hopefully now that all the best tunes from this (their second) album have been used up, we don't need to see them again for a while. Back to rawk for me now!
Further Handsome By Modelling School songs: Are You Down With It | A Day In The Life | I've Been Thinking | Class System which is lost somewhere in April

Handsome Boy Modeling School - Class System (Ft. Pharrell Williams and Julee Cruise)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT goody gum drops
RATING

Another from this popular album (round these parts) and it is again of the downtempo ones. This time the guest vocals come from Julee Cruise, who takes the part of a society bride. The standpoint of the part takes a pretty viscous swipe at that class of person. Williams' soulful chorus and provides a good contrast to the nastiness. One of the high points of the album.

Handsome Boy Modelling School - I've Been Thinking (Ft. Cat Power)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO last week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT fair
RATING

This is a nice piece of downtempo hip hop. There is some nice atmosphere in the loops and the vocal is fine. But it's not as strong as other tracks on the album and consequently, seems rather uninspired. It'd probably be a better track taken on its own merits.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - A Day In The Life (Ft. RZA, Cedric Bixler & Omar Rodrigues (The Mars Volta) & AG)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT purdy good
RATING

The Mars Volta and Wu Tang seems pretty far apart, but thanks to the genius of HBMS, they come together wonderfully. The Mars Volta lads take the choruses, whilst in-between them the rappers take the centre stage. RZA is the first up and pulls some particularly enjoyable rhymes out of his bag, especially "we collect antique ammunitions / and plus we got them big guns / you only see in science fictions", which you just have to love. However, the choruses are probably the most memorable parts of the tune, not that i have a clue as to what they are about.

Handsome Boy Modeling School - Are You Down With It (feat Mike Patton)

ORIGINATION White People
LAST LISTENED TO sunday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT whatever
RATING

The Handsome Boy Modelling School are producers Prince Paul (of Stetsasonic and De la Soul fame) and Dan Nakamura (who was part of Dr. Octagon and the Gorillaz, amongst others). On their two albums they have become famed for their extensive list of guest vocalists over their unique brand of Hip Hop. This track is from their second, less critically successful album and features former Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton making a rare excursion into coherence.

Having been a long time fan of Patton, it was first and foremost his work with FNM that appealed. Since the end of that band, his vocal work, whilst always distinctive, has not so much strayed as run full pelt from convention. In particular his work with Fantômas is just plain nuts. Over their several albums there is barely one recognisable syllable. Which has its time and place and i'd be a liar to write that i never visit that time and place, however i still enjoy hearing his voice in coherence.

Here as one might expect, he does employ a fair range of different voices and styles from his vast arsenal. But they are all engaged in singing, or rapping, actual words and it is a rare treat.

Musically, HBMS are on the ball as ever. Their gift is to be able to not only put their various vocalists at the centre of each piece and build a different sonic background for them, but to be able to join all the disparate pieces together to form an harmonious whole. This is an approach that could probably only work in Hip Hop. Seen from afar, the album's patchwork array of styles reflects the cut-and-paste approach that is the mainstay of Hip Hop.

This piece is has a deep and slow groove that is instantly recognisable as one of theirs.