Footprints is Organic Flow’s debut LP, and I must say it really impresses. I posted about Organic Flow about a month or so back introducing them as a spoken word group and talking about how they are really at the core of what hip-hop is. This album proves that and builds upon those few tracks we had to listen too back then. At a relatively short 9 tracks and 35 minutes, I am left wanting more and thats a great thing.
The album opens up with a track titled “02 New Landscaped People,” which features a live band sound, not dissimilar to what you may hear at a coffee shops or a library. I have always been a sucker for this type of music and artists like The Roots, Audible Mainframe and countless more have successfully incorporated the live band production into their music. With Organic Flow, this sound works very well as the lyrics/poetry are layered and what you get is distinct music.
After the first track, the album shifts to more “rock” centered production with the guitar sounds leading the way for the next few tracks. At first, I wasn’t really a fan of this shift after hearing the opening tracks, but once I sat down and listened to each track more than a couple times, it really started to build on me, although sometimes it was a little bit distracting from the actual vocals. In some ways you could almost say that on the middle few tracks, you get a departure from what you typically expect from a spoken word group, but it works, although I think that a departure from the more guitar/rock oriented beats would have been better suited. The album comes to close on a similar note to the opening tracks with a return to the more jazz poetry influenced style.
When listening to the album you feel like you’re on a journey as you listen to each track. As I said in the introduction to the group and at the beginning of this review, spoken word poetry is hip hop at its most basic. Organic Flow is well on the way to mastering this art form. This is a great effort by Organic Flow, and I am really looking forward to hearing future work.
Organic Flow’s Footprints is available for purchase on bandcamp
