Track Listing

1. Reintroduction
2. Ooh La La
3. We Be The Crew
4. Experience
5. Cowboy 78
6. Search's End
7. Grabbing Hands
8. Temple
9. Start The Commotion
10. Face The Flames
11. Who The Hell
12. Executives
13. Au Pair Girls
14. Production
15. Bounce

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91416 in Music
• Released on: 1998-10-05
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
Earlier in the '90s, if the beats were funky, the scratching ferocious, and the rapping mediocre (or nonexistent) you could bet pound notes to crumpets you were listening to U.K. hip-hop. While U.S. hip-hop had gotten s-l-o-w and low (the better to accommodate its increasingly acrobatic wordplay), in Britain rock-the-house values still persisted. So now that fresh beats and turntablism have made a comeback stateside, old-skool Brit revivalists like the Wiseguys (a.k.a. Touche, a.k.a. Theo Keating) suddenly sound of the moment. On The Antidote, his sophomore effort, this wiseguy comes correct with an album that splits the difference between Fatboy Slim and Black Eyed Peas. The first single and second track, "Ooh La La," which accompanied a popular Budweiser commercial in Britain, boasts a chunky beat and a simple, mindless hook, setting the pattern that the rest of the album follows. It's a surefire formula, and Touche does it better than most--though a bit more of the fervid scratching that animates the leadoff track, "Re-introduction," might have made this Antidote even more soothing. --Jeff Salamon

Customer Reviews

A true classic
It's now the end of 2003, and I still return to listen to this album. It is an absolute classic, lost in the mists of time. If you like that kind of funky hip-hop of Ooh la la, then you *have* to buy this album. Don't get me wrong, this isn't an album based on one single - it's also varied and innovative. Simply fantastic!

With an album this good, you wont need an antidote
This is a superb cd that I've been listening to nearly every day for the last year I've owned it. The songs are wholesome, and while very simple, have a hidden complexity to their nature which with each additional listen will reveal yet more hidden delights to bespell upon the listener.

There's a huge selection of tracks weighing in at a massive 73 minutes! That's almost 74 minutes. The quality of the sampling and arrangement is marvellous and shows just what one can do with two samplers and a Commodore 64!

All in all a brilliant buy that no hiphop, trip hop or breakbeat fan should be without!!

Not good enough
If I hadn't have heard the Wiseguys before listening to this album I would have probably rated this a 3, but since it's a major let down it's only getting a 1. Compared to Executive Suite this album is a joke, and using the Wiseguys name for it is pure sacrilege.

It's not as if I expected it to be anywhere near the quality of Executive Suite (which has to be a lifetimes work) but I expected it to at least be in the same style. Touchè has adapted his style to appeal to the masses and to cash in on the sheer brillience of the first album, it worked on me and I feel robbed.

He does however explain his penny pinching motives in "The Grabbing Hands", maybe there was a lot of money flying about with the Bud ad - but that doesn't make me feel any less robbed.

To be fair, there are a few good tunes on this album (Production, The Grabbing Hands, Face the Flames) but they are mere jingles compared to the last one.

If you are going to listen to the Wiseguys, there is only one album in my opinion - Executive Suite, which I have overplayed for a couple of years and I'm still not sick of it yet.