Y Diwygiad are a multi-lingual hip hop and electronica band with the poet and rapper, 9Tonne (Aneirin Karadog) and the producer / beatboxer / rapper / DJ, Mr Phormula (Ed Holden). They aim to get people to enjoy rap in whatever language - be that in Welsh, English, French, Breton or Spanish!

For their debut album, Hymn 808 they have worked with a number of artists, including the electronic / experimental artist from Los Angeles, Daedelus, (Ninja Tune/Mush Records), members of the Headcase Ladz, Lews Tewns, Cofi Bach and Tow Shady, Hoax Emcee, Dybl-L and others.   

Adventuring through some bizarre subjects, Rapping about drinking tea for example, trying to find Jack the Ripper's brother - Jack the Rapper, mentioning "heave ho" a considerable amount of times, these two Welsh boys bring a fresh and unique sound to hip hop by mixing it up with d‘n’b, jazz, funk, electronica and whatever else takes their mood.

Listening to this album, at times, there seemed to be a hint of Indian sounding roots running through some of the tracks, especially in track 11 ‘Buoron’ with the backing female singers.

At times, it was difficult to hear the lyrics and I wasn’t always sure if what I was listening to was English or one of the other many languages they use.

The beatboxing on this album, especially track 6 ‘All Mouth’, is head noddingly good, even if some of the lyrics are a little quirky: "...You should not dwell, drumming in a well..."

Track 12 ‘Keep it Moving Along’, sees a bonus track running 7 minutes in. This is a funky, jazz track and probably my favourite on the album, shame it’s stuck right out of the way on the last track.

This is an interesting album and a fusion of music, it’s certainly unique but I’m not sure how much it will catch on.

6

Helena Rea