Solid Nourishment

Squeezed from the fruity sediment at the bottom of the Black Grape barrel, Big Dog is the new project of rapper Kermit and Ged Lynch, with bassist Danny Williams and studio dude Mark Jones.

The album opens with a burst of attitude and the cheeky, chunky funk of ‘Genuinely Insincere’, a mission statement for a life of lying, smoking, drinking and having sex with supermodels. It’s hard to know if they’re being ironic or not, but that, my friends, is the point. In immediate contrast is ‘Around Myself’, Arrested Development style positive vibe hip-hop, and followed by the plaintive reggae number ‘In The Middle’, one of the best tracks on the album.

Kermit isn’t the best singer, but no worse than Shaun Ryder, if lacking the sleazy charm, and he’s certainly a larger than life personality in his own right. Big Dog’s debut single ‘Raise The Alarm’ isn’t a particularly endearing track, but it is one of the strongest, a steady barrage of blunt rapping, beats and scratches.

Natural Disaster,’ is more of the same, while ‘Black Super Hero’ bounces around on the shouty Black Grape blueprint, but the real powerhouse piece on Solid Nourishment is the ‘’The Right Thing’, a Funkadelic/Sly Stoned affair with throaty guest vocals from Geno Washington. It seems you can teach a Big Dog old tricks… Oh God, somebody stop me.