Five men are shifting paradigms. Every true at heart artists, that thinks beyond the relevance of his music to his bank account, must want to shift paradigms. Not many actually do. These five men, from Phoenix, Arizona, of all places, do. Because what they do is, two emcees team up with three DJs, with the jobs being obvious: the emcees spit, the DJs provide the music (so call 'em the Stetsasonic of the wheels of steel). Nope, not with samples or something like that. Just like the album title suggest, these "Turnstyles" are turntablistic. So for example on "Startn' Sheeah", Mantis Claw handles the drum, Pickster One handles the bass and J-Why handles the guitar, while Ru-Ski and Emiliano spit the lyrics. But don't get this twisted: turntablism usually is more if not only interesting to the DJs. There's something lacking in those always a little slower, always a little choppy, always a little just not right turntablism beats. Not saying that there aren't DJs that are incredible. There are DJs that are that and then some. But with the impact of a routine always being bigger when you see the man at work, at home the scruffy and imperfect sounds are going against the studio fine twiddling of knob magicians. And well, enter Morse Code with their fader twiddlers. Who are most likely not the best DJs on this planet (I mean, they don't go by the names of Craze, Q-Bert and Melo-D, right?), but they are very good at what they set out to do: offer beats for the two emcees to rhyme over. And beats that are very much in the tradition of turntablism, but strongly consider the listener at home, that can choose between this and the latest SP1200 or MPC miracle. And that mind state was important to accomplish this, as well as accomplish the paradigm shift: put the turntablism at service of the beat and of the song and the emcee. Don't put it to the forefront. Don't make it too flashy. Make it like you would do it with the ASR. That's why it's logical, while not less unfair, that the emcees are a little overshadowed by your intent to really grasp the beats first. Emiliano and Ru-Ski still are good. Your chance to check them out even better comes on the two live recordings. On "Got That Feelin'", we listen to the mainly flowing for flowing's sake verses, that are entertaining still. The second live track is "Clash Of The Goats", where the song gets harder and the scratching and lyrics adopt to that. The scratching is more obvious on some songs like "Avant Garde Hip Hip" and the instrumental "Assembly Line". The only other instrumental song on this record is a hidden cut, that's chaotic, artsy, very long, and interesting to say the least. "Thought Process" and "Rock Wit Us" struggle to really click, with this here being something we are familiar with when it comes to turntablism. The harder appealing background then gives the emcees another chance to profit from the shifted attention, with them giving us more poetic stylings on the first, while getting the crowd hyped rhymes on the latter. On other songs the turntablism is very well hidden, like "Journey Thru The Levels", "Why Wait For Science" or "Fellow Constituents", that features an incredible drum. So does "Pure N' Wyze", where drum n' bass, as well as head music chapter are opened, with Sense, Athene and Nemesis of Diversoul Descendants adding their vocals reciting poetry to one of the most hybrid hip hop, but none the less, best songs on here. When I read about what this album is doing, I had enormous doubts that it will be to my liking. Now I'm convinced. Because the balance these cats find, between doing something that fully sounds like a beat, and between still not hiding the turntablism aspect of the songs, is impressive. Of course sometimes they manage to push the envelope further than on other songs. Nevertheless, the idea of DJs and Rappers working together on this level might be an obvious one. With the pulling the idea off being just the harder. review: tadah tracklisting 1. Intro 2. Startn' Sheeah 3. Avant Garde Hip Hop 4. Journey Thru The Levels 5. Why Wait For Science 6. Assembly Line 7. Fellow Constituents 8. Got That Feelin' (Live at the Lucky Dragon) 9. Thought Process 10. Pure N' Wyze feat. Sense, Athene, Nemesis 11. Rock Wit Us 12. Clash Of The Goats (Live)