Circle Research

Arguably Toronto’s best underground hip-hop show, CKLN’s Circle Research is taking it worldwide with their first vinyl offering. The four-member Circle Research crew — Astro the Guillotine, Nix the Finger Prince, Fishernice and Chris B — invite some of their most popular guests along to participate, creating a three-song single that uncovers "the phenomenon that’s taking Canada by storm!” They start with some light-hearted, old school braggadocio on the title track, "Speak & Read,” with Nix and Abdominal going back and forth over one of Nix’s funky party jams with a little help from every child’s favourite learning toy, the Speak & Read. The next two tracks are produced by Astro and get a little more technical. A guitar-packed "Psy’d Tracked” brings Psy into the mix for a reflection on hip-hop, while "Fade” is the requisite posse cut, with members of the Oddities (Psy, J-StaRRRrrr!!! and Bookworm) and Pangea Project (Yaseen and Kamau), along with Asicks and some Japanese flavour from Yushin. With constant changes throughout the song, and a wide variety of voices, "Fade” succeeds as the most interesting song, even though the title track is likely to get the most airplay. To quote the Speak & Read, "Very Good!”