Ego War sounds like a savvy British A&R man's dream concept: some Streetsy Cockney raps full of sensitive bravado, some gimmicky Beck/Gorillaz-style funk, a cyber-update of the Specials' edgy skank, some bumpin' Basement Jaxxlike house with instant sing-along choruses. But it's a London fing, innit? Can Audio Bullys' elastic electro funk and yobbish, hook-laden house excite Americans outside this country's Anglophile centers? Not likely. Tom Dinsdale's production is consistently punchy and clever, but singer/rapper Simon Franks lacks the verbal dexterity of Mike Skinner (his most obvious peer). Franks often sings about not giving a fuck, and it's hard for us to do so with his banal words.
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