Link to review: http://www.popnews.com/popnews/regeneratedheadpiece/


English Translation:

REGENERATED HEADPIECE – Dog Fight
(Global Hip Hop)

There are worse godparents. To its fans, the trio Regenerated Headpiece is the direct offshoot of a certain Chuck D. If you listen to Dog Fight (the group’s second album), you’ve got to admit that Public Enemy’s leader knew what he was doing. It’s been a dog’s age since a hip hop band this exciting has come to us from New York.

What I mean is that at the start, Regenerated Headpiece sounds more like the feisty, exuberant, underground hip-hop of California than like the more austere, formal East Coast rap. While two rappers (Phon-X, who is also one of the producers, and Shred Lexicon) deliver clever emcee-style duets over throbbing drumbeats and a cacophony of instruments, the turntable-artist Exfyl gives a master demonstration of his deejaying skills (which incidentally won the group a place on a compilation record issued by the cult label Bomb Hip Hop Records). And the results are very cool. The roving piano work on “Cyclops Monocle,” the choruses in “Escape from Slavecamp,” the rhythms of “Saloon Funk,” and the out-of-control scratching on “Anthem Eaters” are all terrific. Musically speaking, the only weak points are a couple of instrument solos that get a little too close to jazz rock.

The words aren’t quite up to the standards of the music. It’s hardly surprising that the dog fight of the title is a metaphor for life, or rather, on a more modest scale, for the career of a rapper. This theme is explored in “Dog Fight” and in “Grand Illusion.” But since it’s important to know who your real enemies are, the two rappers also expand their target field with calls to “fight the power” (“Escape from Slavecamp,” “Robot Whores,” and the endless, orgasmic finale of “Retaliate.”) Right there is where, thanks to the harsh sounds and incendiary lyrics, you can clearly see the link to New York and the closeness to Chuck D. Right there is where Regenerated Headpiece takes its place amid the vast but highly selective family of great New York rappers.

-- Translation by Chuck Wall