By Andrew

It’s the return of the One Dayers riding Mainline til there’s no rides left…or something. Ok ok, I’m not as ‘street’ as I wish I was or I think I sound in my head but I have to say One Day is like a crew from heaven. Made up of Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and the biggest sweetest singing DJ in Australia, Joyride; One Day is Inner Western Sydney’s best up and coming crew. In a move which some could call self-indulgent and others prophetic, they joined forces like one huge Oz hip-hop Voltron and produced their inaugural release ‘Mainline’. Thanks boys, you’ve done us proud again.

Mainline is everything you need in a hip-hop album. Tight lyrics spat, exquisite production from the team and excellent vibe throughout. I wasn’t kidding when I gave Horrorshow 10 out of 10 last year with their latest album; Adit and Solo are champions of the thinking man’s hip-hop but when you couple it with some of the best party hip-hop in the form of Nick Lupi and Jimmy Nice from Spit Syndicate what you get is the best of both worlds. Just like the voltron legs supporting the body, Jimmy and Nick show such strength in their delivery and weaving rhymes. Next the arms of Joyride/Jackie Onassis (Kai Tan and Raph Dixon) make for some very powerful showmanship with Joyride flexing his vast catalogue of talent ranging from production, cuts, spitting and my personal favourite; songbird singing. Next up we have the head, the thinkers and planners, the future believers and the past walkers; Horrorshow. As the first of the crew to make it to the ‘mainstream’ they lead the way throughout ‘Mainline’.

Crap Voltron analogies aside, ‘Mainline’ dances across styles from straight edge hip-hop beats, smattering of Trap and glimpses of Reggaeton. Its refreshing to mix the general sounds of Horrorshow and Spit Syndicate, which, although teammates, are very different beasts. But as One Day they are one. Magically combining forces in their own ways with Nick and Jimmy making the most of the spotlight and Joyride pretty much doing what we love in the big man. Adit and Solo take a small step back in this release and although I have much, much love for them (fuck, I’m wearing my ‘Heavy is The Head’ shirt right now), its nice to hear it as one big hip-hop chimera.

It’s a competent album from start to finish and the delivery of track to track is tight. Standout tracks are the title track ‘Mainline’, lead track ‘Many Hands’ and the brilliantly swaysy ‘S.D.R.O.’. Nothing really drops the ball across the entirety of the release, but that said, it’s gotta be hard to bring three very diverse hip-hop groups together to make an album like this and it’s just lucky these dudes are all mates because I could see it never happening if it was other genres or really, any other collection of artists other than The Herd.

This is a very good release to really come out of left field. I know the lads might have dreamt it, but I surely never did. Thanks to all who contributed from all three groups because your influence, however slight, is greatly appreciated. If not to reinforce the power of a crew album and the very strong extension of the crew track we all know and love.

***AIN’T NOWHERE LIKE MAINLINE***

9/10 One Dayers Come Home {Abrasive Andy}