Scott Blackwell

Item: The Real Thing
Author: Roger Appelinski

The Real Thing

(1994)

Reviewed by Roger Appelinski

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Label N*Soul RecordsThe LighthouseApril 1995

dance pop electronic techno

Scott Blackwell is an innovator. He was arguably the primary force behind the foundations of the Christian dance music movement. Between his work with MYX and his own N-Soul Records, he has created or produced some of the most unique, cutting-edge dance music in the Christian scene--pushing the limits all the time.

Yet there has been a consistency in his solo albums. Not that they weren't new and exciting, they just had similarities. Each one had a range of styles from house to rave, synthesized loops to samples, and usually a good collection of strong lyrics. This release does not fit the usual plan.

The Real Thing is mostly instrumental club sounds, that are, on the whole, pretty even. There are a few changes of pace and style, but it remains a much tighter-knit collection of songs. Apart from the Limit X chants, only one has lyrics.

This is the first Blackwell project where he has had a partner. Zarc Porter from World Wide Message Tribe assisted Blackwell in the writing on 4 songs, while privately writing an additional 4. Blackwell only wrote 1 himself. The additional song is a remix of the Sandra Stephens/Scott Blackwell tune "Day By Day" from Walk on the Wild Side--the token lyrical track. The Real Thing almost seems to be more of a WWMT project than a Blackwell gig.

You also need to be prepared for a small, or maybe not-so-small, mistake in the packaging. Limit X adds some African chant-type lyrics to the song "Bwana Bwana," labeled as track 9 on the disc and liner notes, yet it is track 5 on the CD. Since the other tracks are primarily instrumentals, it is hard to tell which songs are which--but, does it really matter if they're all instrumentals? Maybe not.

While I consider myself to be a major fan of Scott Blackwell, this won't be the most played from his collection. It just wasn't what I had hoped for from Blackwell--my own fault for having expectations. For me, there were too many sequencers, not enough samples, and definitely not enough lyrics. If that isn't a major flaw to you, then this will be an excellent project for you.