Heat is a Yakuza flick. You get plenty of them in Japan, so it’s a bit difficult to know how good it is (or it is not). But this one is a little more special, to me at least, cine the music was commissioned to no less than Tha Blue Herb, the best hiphop crew in Japan. Plenty of reviews, mp3’s and an interview to be found in our archive, by the way.

Since Sell our Soul, TBH’s core duo of MC Ill Bosstino and beatmaker O.N.O have been focusing on their own side projects, so, if you except one single, news in the mothership camp were sparse.

It’s difficult to know in what direction Tha Blue Herb are heading based on this release: we only get 3 proper songs, the rest being instrumentals (not uninteresting by the way). First, lets focus on those three songs. It’s quite obvious that they form a sort of trilogy, even if you only take their titles into account: My heat, My work and My faith. My Heat begins like a classic TBH cut: a shamisen for the melody and your usual dose of off-kilter, chaotic beats. It’s not as hard hitting as some of the tracks on Sell our Soul were, but the sound is actually more refined, it has more depth (which is a bit hard to believe if you’ve actually heard SoS.) As usual, Boss’voice is great: very calm, self-assured, aloof but never arrogant, he is one of the best MC’s around. Most certainly in Japan, but I'd dare say worldwide too. Among all these (excellent but) known elements, there is one novelty: keyboards are used a little more prominently, a bit like Boss did with his Herbest Moon project, adding a deep house flavour (but do not run away: there is nothing housey in the beats). My work is more of an abstract thing: the beats have a distinct industrial flavour and are “surrounded” by various electronic sound and again that deep (but discreet) keyboard sound. It is only obvious that O.N.O has learned a great deal in working on his solo projects. My faith is a straighter hiphop track. The beats are more “normal”, but it’s still some trademark Tha Blue Herb: traditional instruments for the melody, some delay effects for the melancholy, Boss’s calm and chilled out delivery. Lyrically, Boss speaks about his hiphop vocation. Trust me, he is not close to give it all up in favour of a deep house career.

The rest of the album is made of instrumental cuts mixing together both O.N.O’s solo sounds and what Boss learned with Herbest Moon. It’s interesting but not always mind blowing since it is quite obvious that some of the tracks are purely illustrative, to be listened whil watching the movie. However, it’s interesting since it could be considered as a sort of laboratory for the next full-length.

Of course, we don’t know what the next album will sound like, but this release proves that TBH are definitely masters at what they do and that they never rest on their laurel, always wanting to bring new stuff in their sound. Heat is a nice teaser.