Saturday, October 19, 2013

EQ - Swellsville LP (Unreleased 1991)



A few months ago Kilo-Cee gave me a copy of an album that had been on my "Want" list since the early 90's. The album is by THE group that sparked my love for Hip-Hop music from my own city. The album is by THE group that turned a hard to please Hip-Hop head into a fan. The album is by THE group that gave me new meaning to the phrase "It ain't where you're from, it's where your at!" 

The album is Swellsville by EQ the Lyrical Assault Team - Vancouver's original Hip-Hop crew.

EQ is The Incredible Ease and his partner Quaze, Seattle's DJ King Otto, and later Kilo-Cee who would be added to the line up to handle DJ duties north of the border as well as the majority of scratches on Swellsville. EQ first caught my attention when they tore the house down opening for Public Enemy at The Orpheum. Then they did the same when they were the special guests at UBC's DJ Sound Wars. Add to that they they had a video playing on Much Music (a first by a vancouver Hip-Hop group) and they were instant Hip-Hop heroes. 

Ease & Quaze are responsible for Vancity's first Hip-Hop classic with 1990's "They Can't Cope", which is the b-side to EQ's debut 12" "Put Yo Body In It". Swellsville was supposed to be the album that followed, but due to industry rule #4080 it never saw the light of day. A handful of cassettes made it to the group but that was it. If you never got your hands on one of those tapes, which is pretty much everybody on the planet, then you never had a chance to hear Swellsville. It is a familiar story, but an all too real one that kept the world from hearing an ill fucking album that should at very least be recognized as a Canadian classic. Maestro Fresh Wes and Main Source aside, I put Swellsville up against anything released in the early 90's - Dream Warriors, Devon, MCJ & Cool G, Kish, Ground Control, Organized Rhyme or any of the other rappers I saw on Much Music's Soul In The City "Rap" specials back in the day. The production on Swellsville can give Maestro and Main Source a run for their money too. Straight up. The beats are hard as hell.

In a 2007 article for the Canadian Rap Music blog Living Underwater, Vancity OG Birdapres summed up Swellsville by saying "Much could be said about the potential impact of this missing classic, and what could have been. To hear it is to understand. No Hip House or love songs. No clumsy attempts at pop accessibility. Hard beats, fresh rhymes and scratching. The sort of thing that heads in 1991 would have latched onto gratefully."

He is 100% correct.

With the recent passing of our friend Edwin Kohn, aka The Incredible Ease, it feels like the perfect time for Swellsville to see the light of day (it is far overdue actually). Anybody that has ever had the pleasure of meeting Ease knows what a cool cat he was. He lived and breathed this Hip-Hop shit. Whether it was Ease and Kilo every Tuesday at Midnite taking over the airwave with the legendary Krispy Biskut show, or him rocking the mic with EQ (or on the solo tip), or hosting concerts and parties, The Incredible Ease has influenced and educated us all. Rest In Peace Homeboy.


EQ
Swellsville

1. Come Alive
2. Step Up
3. Play The Back
4. Help A Bruva Out
5. Late 4 The Studio
6. Bring It On
7. Serious
8. Inner Thoughts
9. Swellsville
10. Funky Oasis
11. Hostile
12. Freestyle
13. Let It Be Known
14. Come Alive (King Otto Remix)


EQ
"They Can't Cope"

1. Mellow Mix
2. Video Mix







10 comments:

Krispy Bisket Fan said...

Thanks for sharing the download link. Great stuff! RIP Ease.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this
RIP The Incredible Ease

unikone said...

thanx for the release !! nice work

Anonymous said...

I just found out about the Incredible Ease passing away tonight. I'm devestated. Many a night I spent recording the Krispy Bisket show off the radio onto cassette in Vancouver in the 90's, listening to him MC while Kilo C DJ'd. Thanks so much for sharing this! This, and all the beer in my fridge, should help to Ease the pain. I'm really gonna miss you Ease!

_Shorty said...

Great to hear this stuff again. Thanks! I was at that P.E. gig, and I only knew of EQ from the video for They Can't Cope. They did put on a good show that night.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I stumbled on this some 3 years after the previous post.

I mixed that first record, and the cassette, and did the (clumsy) beats with Edwin
and Quaze way back. Alan Landa and I and them out in New West on a lovely Trident
board. Quaze and I programmed this funny track with porn samples which made it to
a b-side later - none of which I know about the whereabouts. I remember doing the
reverse beats on "lyrical assualt" with my old EmulatorII hah. I was no good at the
hard, full-flow beats and I stepped back out of being 'crap' at it - Quaze picked
up the gauntlet (SP12) in hours and I left it in the old RAD studios for them to do
stuff with. Their entire crew were solid blokes; there was never a nasty word uttered,
just hard work and fun. The Orpheum show was fab. Did a lil co-production for that,
but it all fell into place.

My thoughts to Edwin. He was a kind hearted man. Quaze a fun-loving guy who after
I moved on from RAD (Infinite Beat at 40 Powell st) I never heard from again.

'them cheese sandwiches, maaan!'

The miller genuine draught the guys would bring up from Seattle to the studio.. all
good memories. Swellsville is a masterpiece. Glad I met Don Chow and helped out at that
seminal DJ Sound War too!

-jason

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Quazedelic said...

Blessup!!

Quaze said...

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CM said...

100% PURE DOPE
Many thanks from tee dot (and links still alive 9 years later? Wow)