Drinking All Over the World: Betty Ford Boys “Retox”

Chris Daly owns an aquarium in Bavaria While many are quick to assume that the beat scene resides entirely in LA, a growing number of local scenes are springing up across the globe adding their take...
By    December 17, 2014
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Chris Daly owns an aquarium in Bavaria
While many are quick to assume that the beat scene resides entirely in LA, a growing number of local scenes are springing up across the globe adding their take to the quicksilver genre.  It’s time for me to put you up on  the Betty Ford Boys, arguably the first ever beat “supergroup” to hail from Germany.  Sure, with labels like Project: Mooncircle, those in the know have known that Deutschland has been a hotbed for off-kilter electronic music for years, but you haven’t heard shit like this before now.
Comprised of Suff Daddy, Dexter and Brenk Sinatra, the trio creates a throwback sound, heavy on the samples and moog-driven 808s that is anything but dated.  While a lot of hip-hop beat projects play like rap albums missing an MC, Retox, the band’s follow-up to last year’s Leaders of the Brew School,  plays as a series of fully realized songs that stand on their own.  No spitters need apply, thank you very much.  Recorded in The Fisherhaus, a small timber cottage in southwestern Germany, the time in the woods clearly treated the boys well, as this is Bavarian C.R.E.A.M. of the highest order.


Opener “All Up On My Nutz” demonstrates either a horrible grasp of English or a wicked sense of humor, as the mellow, yet funky jam revolves around vocal samples of various iterations of “all up on my nut sack” (of which there are surprisingly many takes; google search the term, but it’s probably best to stay away from the images).  I have little doubt it’s the latter.  Follow-up “Earland Journey” is a blissfully blunted session, and “Everyday Pt. 2” keeps the chilled vibe flowing.  And then they kick things up a notch.  While it never strays from its playful roots, the album becomes increasingly harder as it progresses.  The kick drums on “Henny Lean”, “Raymond’s Lament” or “The Symphony (Jeep Volume)” could soundtrack anyone from N.W.A. to the Wu (well, early Wu, at least).  The real strength here, though, lies in both the choice and length of vocal samples.

Whereas a lot of producers today bury the vocals deep in the mix to create the effect of an extra instrument, BFB lets the snippets play out long enough to add the vocal flourish needed to help these creations live and breathe.  As a side note, not sure what the copyright laws are in Germany, but they don’t sound as strict as they are here if Retox is any indication.   The album closes with the one-two punch of “Two” and “What They Do,” a perfect summation of the album’s strengths–funky as hell, occasionally hard, often silly, always spot on.  While it’s way premature to declare the supremacy of the German beat scene today, others better start watching their rear view mirrors because the Betty Ford Boys drink them under the table.

 

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