Reviewed by Steve Hayes

Truth and TeK hail from Reading and have put this album together over several years. Both Truth and Tek (short for ArkiteK) both rap, with Truth handling the beats and Tek handling production. The album brings a pretty funky, soul, underground vibe (such as on the standout West Coast sounding "Victory Today") with influences like Nas and The Roots showing through. Truth and Tek bring in a variety of guest artists from around Reading to keep things moving and drop a number of old skool-style samples into tracks across the project ("Fal$e Prophets" being an example as they rightly call out fake prosperity "ministers"). Generally the beats are varied but across a 19-track project there are inevitably a couple of repetitive breaks and weaker songs. But where the beats and production are good, they are very good and both soulful and powerful. One outstanding cut is "Fly Away" with flow, breaks and lyricism coming together to make something truly memorable ("This world's so corrupt, unfair and unjust, no wonder no-one believes a loving God could be amongst us"). If it was all this good it would be a 10 square album.

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.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.