Album Review: DJ Vadim - Don’t Be Scared

Russian-English producer DJ Vadim has had a long and illustrious career, predominantly with London uber-label BBE, for the most part pushing worldly soul and soulful hip hop. His latest album is well titled in that it is his most experimental effort to date, a listening experience that will, to an extent, challenge long-time fans.

Whereas Vadim has previously led with lyric and melody, Don't Be Scared is all about the drums; exotic, heavy, percussive riddims that owe as much to traditional Eastern, African and South American music as they do the various London styles that have come and gone over the past 20 years. In fact, in several cases it seems vocals may have been added almost as an afterthought, although this was surely not the case. Lost My Love sees Jazz Bailey's delicate voice riding a very UK drum pattern comprising dancehall, house and drum'n'bass influences, Set Them Free pairs Sabida Jade's righteous, yet sexy, vocals with a dirty bass grind while on I'm Feeling You, Gregory Blackman's rocky vocal performance fails to make any connection with its backdrop of clattering percussion, weird, brooding synth-bass and 2-step-ish beats.

Elsewhere, This DJ, featuring J-man, is straight up grimey hip-hop (in the UK sense), Bally Umar flirts with sub-continental riddims while Leader is futuristic electro hip hop from regular collaborator Yarah Bravo, somewhat reminiscent of Spank Rock. Finally locking onto that groove he threatens to unleash throughout the set, Akura Uprock is an intricate, fluctuating, twisted beast of a track, summing up what is a challenging, worldly and sometimes rewarding set from a seasoned producer looking to step outside his comfort zone.