When Cadence Weapon (aka Roland “Rollie” Pemberton) released his debut ablum, Breaking Kayfabe on Upper Class Recordings back in 2005, he quickly became the name to drop as Canada’s next big thing. Breaking Kayfabe was re-released on Big Dada last September and you can spot the links with label mates Spank Rock (without the bump obsessions) and TTC (sans le français) with a dark, shadowy Burial-style take on old skool computer game hip hop (particularly liked ‘Black Hand’, ‘Sharks’ and the apololypitic ‘30 Secords’).

So after a heavy touring regime including a trip to SXSW in 2006 and Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival last July, Big Dada will be throwing their full weight behind the difficult follow-up, Afterparty Babies.

Pemberton’s father was Teddy Pemberton, a pioneering hip hop DJ on CJSR-FM back in the day. The opening track is ‘Do I Miss My Friends?’, which contains the line “My dad said I was an afterparty baby; this goes out to all the accidents out there; keep on making mistakes.” ‘Do I Miss My Friends?’ isn’t a mistake as it’s like a downtempo Busdriver influenced tape loop thing that’s in sharp contrast to the fast flowing single, ‘In Search Of The Youth Crew’ (released 18th February 2008).

Story telling like a modern day Dylan, he takes on ‘Tattoos (And What They Really Feel Like)’ which is good fun there’s a good little but story about his worst club experience ever, at the end of ‘House Music’ before ‘Unsuccessful Club Nights’ (I can relate to this one). Like the best indie styled hip hop, mostly I’m not at all sure what he’s going on about, it just sounds good. I’m sure there’s an anti-property message on ‘Real Estate’ and even Ian Curtis gets a mention on ‘Your Hair’s Not Clothes!’ (the Joy Division of hip hop?)

Definitely for fans of Aesop Rock, Busdriver and fellow Canadian, Abdominal, the new album just continues the good work of Breaking Kayfabe with more of a smile on his face. Intelligent underground hip hop you might say and I love that cover even more than Well Deep.

Reviewed: Cadence Weapon — Afterparty Babies (Big Dada Recordings) Cat. No: BDCD115P Release date: March 2008
Tracklisting:
1 Do I Miss My Friends? (5:12)
2 In Search Of The Youth Crew (4:13)
3 True Story (3:35)
4 Limited Edition OJ Slammer (3:52)
5 Juliann Wilding (3:44)
6 Real Estate (3:42)
7 Messages Matter (3:45)
8 Your Hair’s Not Clothes! (3:29)
9 Tattoos (And What They Really Feel Like) (3:30)
10 The New Face Of Fashion (3:28)
11 Getting Dumb (4:39)
12 House Music (5:37)
13 Unsuccessful Club Nights (3:54)
14 We Move Away (5:06)

Links:
www.cadenceweaponmusic.com
www.myspace.com/cadenceweapon
www.ninjatune.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton,_London vs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton