Stream or Download Running Punch – Publish or Perish
The daily routine of your average music lover has transformed beyond recognition over the past few years. The explosion of the Internet has replaced dusty record shops, and crate digging therein, with webpage after webpage affording instant access to The Next Big Thing. Genre’s are forever invented and twisted in pursuit of the fabled blog buzz, with artists happy to adjust their output from week to week to appease the hungry A and R surfers.
This, however, is not everyone’s sentiment. ‘Just make music for yourself and if other people like it, well that’s cool too’ – the words of producer Sherlock Bones who, with Captain Bukioe, makes up Running Punch; a welcome alternative to the current hip hop coming out the UK scene.
With foundations in the landscape of pure and iconic UK hip hop synonymous with a generation’s youth, Bones and Bukioe are under no illusions as to who their intended audience is. UK hip-hop is fast becoming a forgotten sound in its classic form, and as such heads have either been left with tracks heard hundreds of times to get their fix or putting up with immerging artists drenched in the stigma of rap stereotypes.
Publish or Perish effortlessly accomplishes the ruse of sounding both brand new yet familiar at once. From the instant link to the classic popular ‘hip-hop’ sounds of The Message, through to an ode to common sense in A Sweet Minute, the style of Bones and Bukioe best described as well crafted to any listener. Also, in times when confrontation is the topic of choice for most of the scene, Bukioe’s philosophical contemplations come resonantly fresh…
I started so I’ll finish
I just need to leave it be for a sweet minute
Before I greet the scene and sink my teeth deep in it
My limit reached? Never
Just need to breath and look before I leap in it
The art of storytelling is alive and well throughout Publish or Perish, both in composition and verse. Bones’s production combines classic breaks on a platter of unearthed samples to catch the ear of any hip hop head, yet with a unique signature to his sound. Unlike most MC’s in the UK limelight, speaking of a lifestyle foreign to the common man, Bukioe’s verses have a conversational flow and recall subject matter familiar till the end and allowing association.
With Publish or Perish listeners can expect an intricate artistic package, from the 16 track album through to packaging (illustrated by Bukioe), A3 poster and stickers alike.
