CRIMINAL MINDS

The Criminal Minds will be popping up a lot in this blog, being both champions of the old skool rave, pioneers of UK hip hop and now returned to full effect in the modern era.

As well as releasing some massive hits in the hardcore and jungle scenes, the Criminal Minds were at the forefront of the Britcore scene. It stands as an accolade that they are mentioned in the same breath as Gunshot, Hijack, Caveman, Killah Instinct and Silver Bullet.

But the Criminal Minds had their own distinctive sound. Based in Milton Keynes rather than London, isolated them somewhat, giving them room to breathe and devolop their own take on hard hitting UK hip-hop.

And now they're back in 2011 with this monster...

On the Run (part 2) -   Boom! This is one of the best music videos I've seen for a while - not much happens in it, but it is shot beautifully and suits the track perfectly. It is wicked INTENSE.




On the Run is a track on the Regroup the Loops EP released on Fat Hop - a label pushing old skool sounds with a new skool mentality. In my opinion, you can't make good music without knowing about the past, and this label ticks all my boxes! More about Fat Hop later.



On the Run (part 2) is actually a refix of an earlier version which you can find below.

On the Run - The original was was released on the Widowmaker LP in 2001. This version is a lot more stripped back and bare than the newer vesion, but I think it really works. Kind of like a hypnotic mantra.

The early Ciminal Minds vinyl goes for silly money - im talking about £100 plus. Luckily, lots of their old hip hop stuff were compiled on a release by Rephlex Records this year. Weirdly enough my friend Philippe (DJ Prophane) mentioned he had orded a copy off Amazon around the same time as me. Turned out we had both ordered the last copy at almost exactly the same time!! Crazy. Eventually Philippe managed to secure himself another copy and I bought his one off him.

Philippe is an Assistant Manager of a wicked independent record shop called Rat Records in Camberwell in South London.

To those who say vinyl is a dead format I say go down to Rat Records on a saturday morning If you can fight your way through the mob of glassy-eyed vinyl junkies to the racks, bag yourself some rare wax.
They sell all sorts there and I highly recommend them.


Check out Criminal Mind's back catalogue here - ruff tuff and wicked stuff:
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Criminal+Minds%2C+The?anv=Criminal+Minds