Ree-Vo have engineered a world that perfectly reflects a certain vision and method towards electronic dance music and hip hop on their latest LP; an all-encompassing, scientifically calibrated, omni-motion-catalyst, that presents an open invitation to anyone willing to join the experiment and find their groove; a proposal evinced by the title, All Welcome On Planet Ree-Vo. The duo at the core of the project is a recent collaboration between two established figures in the Bristol underground, that of rapper T.Relly and producer Andy Spaceland. My first impression of the record, and an impression that was cemented upon multiple listens, was that their selection of sparky, percolating and reggae reminiscing beats, as well as T's deft and energetic flow are a purposeful echo of an era of house and rap that was immortalized in the South London club scene of the '90s, as represented in fictionalized documentations like the Junglist, and other such street level recollections of the time. It's a record that is full of hijinks, meticulously plotted schemes, and sharp displays of forethought, that combine with a commitment and judicious approach to fat-back funk and boom-box-busting trip-hop sounds, all of which somehow still come across as effortlessly spontaneous and ephemeral despite the music's clear and qualitative impact. Still, this is only a starting point, as All Welcome... is not a throwback record. Just because much of contemporary hip-hop feels devoid of structure and intention, doesn't automatically convert any record that does consciously embodies these values into boomer boom-bap. The tightness of the sequencing of the beats present here and T's tendency to mock, box, and spare with their grooves is essential to the dynamics of the album. These consequential structures are not just enabled by modern studio tech, but representative of different, unique, and progressive sensibility for how beats combine with rhymes in a way that conveys a message as well as a body moving momentum. All Welcome On Planet Ree-Vo might feel at times like it is simply escaping the inertia of the past, but in reality, it is hurdling the passivity and pessimism of the present in a quest to open a lane to the future.
