Reviewed by Paul Poulton

A safe haven from the normal world. It's not nice and it's not neat but Mars Ill's song "Breath Slow" featured here helps keep Gotee right where they want to be, even if goatee's have disappeared out of the fashion stakes. (I always resisted the urge to have one, despite pressure from near and dear ones.)  For 10 years Gotee have hacked their way through the comfort zone and advanced the art form known as Christian music. The Atlanta-based duo Mars ILL, (I write upper case so you'll know how to pronounce it) release their second CD -'Breakbackanomics' - through Gotee; "Breath Slow" is taken from it and is sloppily first class in every way, not too far away from Eminem. Check these words: "Right before you rock a show BREATHE SLOW/When a promoter owes you dough BREATHE SLOW/When your career doesn't blow BREATHE SLOW/You bounced five cheques in a row BREATHE SLOW/You got fisticuffs to throw BREATHE SLOW/Your boss told you no BREATHE SLOW." Great advice for righteous living. Gotee have a fair mix of guitar bands and hip-hop, this compilation has seven hip-hop tracks: John Reuben, Grits and LA Symphony's tracks all worth listening to. Three electric guitar bands, including Sonicflood's "I Want To Know You"; it's an old track now but most of the songs on here are only one or two years old. Two acoustic guitar-based songs, Jennifer Knapp's "Undo Me", yeah that's old too but worth listening to again. Newcomer Paul Wright, sounds like After The Fire 2004 minus the synths. There is an outstanding song from the Katinas, "Freedom" - black vocal phrasing, nasty white guitar, it's MOR compared to the rest of the songs. But cool nonetheless. 15 songs at an amazing price.

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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