N'fa JonesBlack + White Noise
The Ayems / Sony

- It’s been a full 8 years since N’fa Jones’ last full-length release. The former frontman of 1200 Techniques has had an interesting foray into the solo artist world, releasing a couple of decent tracks and two film clips directed by Heath Ledger. Then nothing. Finally, with the aid of crowd funding, there’s a new album to scrutinise, Black + White Noise.

I had a lot of expectations going into this, interesting flows, conscious lyrical views on society and above all, catchy tracks. From the opening moments, it’s clear that the beats here have been laboured over. Smooth in every way, groovy bass lines and subtlety in every corner, but the production makes it just a bit too pop. The more interesting instruments and effects tend to get lost behind the more danceable elements but that’s a bit of a minor gripe. Thematically, there isn’t much in the way of social commentary; N’fa gets a bit more introspective here. From the sounds of things, the downtime between albums hasn’t been all that pretty and a lot of soul searching has taken place. “There’s no Steven Seagal to save me,” he states on Live On, a track that finds him asking the lord himself why he gets in his own way. On the most old school track on the album Life’s A Game he realises that all he really has in life is choice, reminiscent of the way Nas did on Life’s A Bitch or Common did throughout his whole career.

The biggest thing separating N’fa Jones from names as big as those isn’t the timeframe or heritage however, it’s the inconsistency. For someone artsy enough to get Heath Ledger interested around the same time as The Dark Knight, there are a couple tracks so pop oriented they can be hard to sit through. Money Better Come has a chorus so disposable it could’ve appeared around the middle of last year’s hottest 100 while Monsters Ballad has a stylish darkness that Kanye would be proud of. Hip-hop albums can be especially susceptible to this kind of unpredictability and with the average Australian producer still a long way behind the US, Black + White Noise falls flat in a few spots. But when everything falls into place, N’fa Jones gives hope that there might be growing room yet.

- Krishan Meepe.

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