Bending Mouth

Selfhelp and Thesis came together for the first time on "Baby Ducks and Dragon Flys," from the latter's solo debut, The Adventures of Thesis Sahib and Friends, thus initiating the foundation for a partnership that would evolve into Bending Mouth. Representing both London, ON, and Halifax, NS, means an abundance of talent to tap for production on their independently released self-titled debut. More than half the production credits are shared almost equally between Kilgour (with some assists from Fester) and Toolshed's Timbuktu, who sets the scene with quirky, mostly mid-tempo head-nodders. The rest of the tracks are contributed in small quantities by Jesse Dangerously (part of Imaginary Friends, with Thesis), Lazyman, G-Force and Creature Box's Savilion, but the big coup is opening track "Stolen From Family," produced by Sixtoo, and likely the best track on the album. But what is truly amazing is that even with the large number of producers, BM's debut has a cohesive feel that wouldn't be expected. On top of that, Thesis and Selfhelp have an undeniable chemistry that reveals itself through the subject matter and intertwined rhymes that is never jarring from one MC to the other. The lyrical wordplay rotates around the axis of social commentary and personal introspection, creating an album that not only sounds good, but means something, too. And to top it all off, how can you go wrong when Alf invites you to the group's "unveiling" during the intro?