DJ Vadim

 Hip hop’s favourite Russian ex-pat returns with his third album, "USSR – The Art Of Listening" and once again DJ Vadim has raised his game.

"…Listening" has all of the angular abstractions of Vadim’s earlier work, but here it is combined with a new depth of musicality, a love of bass and an interest in music and words from around the world. So, alongside UK MCs like Taskforce and Phi Life Cipher and the cream of US underground wordspitters like Slug, Gift of Gab, Moshun Man and Vakill can be found Polish jazz legend Urzula Dudziak (a favoured sample source for A Tribe Called Quest back in the day), Gruff from Super Furry Animals, Ade Soma and the Rev’d Clevie Brown. Tablas and djembe drums mix with Japanese flutes, Brazilian guitars, spoken word, obscure scratched sound bites and a definite UK street sound incorporating hints of jungle bass and drums, all build the whole into something unusual and special

It makes for a heady mixture, a record which Vadim describes as "a very grown up but cheeky and extremely musical album." Urban but experimental, fresh and different, this record goes beyond not only what he has done before, but beyond much of today’s hip hop. With its global view of music, it’s new emphasis on soul, its concrete feel for the aesthetic of the sample, "The Art Of Listening" is funny, serious, unique.

Those who know how to listen will hear….