Thursday 8 January 2009

Dan Bull - Safe




Dan Bull is a hip hop musician from the UK.

Musician really is the best way to describe him as the album see's him dabble in acoustic guitar, drum programming, rapping and singing, this is not a man to be confined by genres.

'Safe' is a concept album that tells the story of a young man who attempts suicide during a global thermonuclear holocaust and awakens in a new, ambiguous nirvana. Along the way, Dan Bull covers such topics as summer sunshine, friendship, love and loss, alienation, politics, death, religion, suicide and insanity.

Described as ''The Streets meets Morrisey'' Dan covers a wide range of topics throughout the album with a competent flow that is easy to follow but impressive nonetheless, over music that ranges from dramatic orchestral strings on 'My Catharsis' to upbeat guitar melodies and vocals on ''Cut'' where the arrangement switches from this upbeat moment of Dan realising love to a more reflective rap section where the newfound love seems to fall apart. I was impressed at the attention to detail, especially at moments like this where such effort was put in to make the music and words follow eachother and alter the mood.

"Misfit" is a dark, introspective track which sees Dan pondering his place in the world over a simplistic drum track and equally simplistic but haunting melody.

"Afterlife" was another stand out track for me where Dan effortlessly describes the processes of Algamortis and Rigormortis with the foundation message of ashes to ashes, dusk to dusk.

Overall - dark and relentless, at times 'Safe' can be hard going but lighter tracks like 'Summer' elevate the mood. I would recommend this album to anyone bored of the usual music marketed at the moment - hip hop or otherwise and i would definitely be interested in hearing anything else Dan Bull comes out with in the future.

So if you're curious to hear what talent sounds like, or if you want to provide your ipod wth a welcome change;

Download the album HERE

More info on Dan can be found on the Freshnut website

Check him out on MySpace HERE

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