12 Dec 2017 // A review by Paul Goddard
I read a Facebook post from a friend of mine in the UK recently who writes reviews. It went something like this "somebody please send me some music I can feel enough to believe it".

That statement rings so true. Music is ultimately about how it makes you feel not how good the bass player is or what a killer voice the singer has or how you wish the drummer could be more like Dave Grohl. It is an emotional connection and that is why it doesn't even matter what genre the music is.

If it makes you feel something, happy, sad, angry, thoughtful, then it has connected. The worst music is where you feel nothing, complete indifference, lift muzac. Same when bands play live. if you don't feel it then you don't care and you just lost two hours of your life you will never get back.

This review took me a while to write. Not because I was struggling to have something to say but because I have had this EP on repeat almost every day since it was sent to me.

The four songs on here are not technically, musically stunning. Nor are the almost menacingly whispered vocals. This is why these songs exactly validate my point about emotional connection. This music is stripped back, scalped to the bone, raw pure emotion and it CONNECTS.

The primal beats and dark squeaks and squeals are punctuated by an almost tribal repetition of words. It takes you to a point where you are just chanting the refrain without maybe even knowing what the song is about (nothing wrong with that, you can connect with the lyrics later). You just know that it makes you feel something.

The songs on this EP are dark but simultaneously uplifting. They agitate and sooth in equal measure. They make you feel and they make you think.

This is rare nowadays in this consumer filled throwaway "post everything you see (not feel) society" where everyone becomes numb to what is going on around them. We are human we need to connect. Scalper is here and he has chosen to cut communication to the bone, through his music, to the raw soul. You should search him, you should "like" this and if you are human you will feel this and you should be his "friend".


_{Review written by Paul Goddard}

Scalper is Nadeem Shafi, born and raised in East London of Pakistani descent. First seen in Aotearoa New Zealand at WOMAD 1997 as the vocalist for the British band Fun-da-mental. Now based on the wild West Coast of Auckland, having moved here in 2007. Scalper is Hip-Hop like you’ve never heard it before. Moody, gritty beats with introspective lyrics that conjure visions of epic proportions, and an electrifying live performance that demands attention.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Scalper

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