Make It Happen (Review)

Upshot are something of a ’supergroup’ in Australian hip-hop, being a seven-piece formed in November 2000 and combining a fluid nucleus consisting of a jazz-rock band - Michael Iveson on percussion, Jeremy Glover on bass, Pauly J on keyboards, Martin Johannessen on Sax, with various guests on trumpet, guitar and vocals, along with the turntables of Leeroy Brown (Easy Bass), and former Adelaide-based MCs Quro, of Finger Lickin’ Good, Fuglemen and Reference Point fame, and Brass from Celsius, along with guest appearances by long established Sydney MCs like Sleeping Monk  (Ear Infection, Frequency Unknown, easy Bass) and Sereck (Def Wish Cast and Celsius), as well as the Herd’s Urthboy. Paul Joanannessen assumes composition, editing, arrangement and production credits, and the result is a predominantly up-tempo, funk-driven jazz-hip-hop with a live band sound strongly influenced by Philadelphia crew the Roots, whose producer Tom Coyne mastered this album at Sterling Sound in New York City.

The result is a consistently seamless groove which melds funky basslines, sax lines, keyboard riffs, syncopated percussion, soul singing and scattershot rapping into an appealingly organic whole, occasionally reminiscent of British funksters Red Snapper. Apart from an eponymous EP release on Melbourne label Obese in 2003 without Brass or Glover, and with Sleeping Monk as a full-time member, this self-produced outing is Upshot’s first CD album, but they have already built a strong reputation on the Eastern seaboard as a live band that really cooks. The opening track ‘Leviathan’ , which pays homage to John Birmingham’s book about Sydney’s dark underbelly,  celebrates local criminality in ’sin city’  over a hard, mean guitar riff, ‘One Take’ laments lack of opportunity with a catchy chorus hook, ‘Not Working’ works in a casio-like keyboard figure, ‘About to Break’ features some frantic scratching and a metallic guitar,  Breathe explores a big band styled dissonnance, ‘Money’ is a remixed track from the EP where Sleeping Monk berates the evils of capitalism and all the accoutrements of high finance,  ‘Tango’ showcases Sereck’s unique rapid fire ’syllaballistic’ delivery , ‘Dangerous to Dream’ celebrates Bondi and name-checks Rene Rivkin. Make It Happen is a testament to what independent self-management in hip-hop and jazz can come up with when it has the determination to do something different on its own terms.