BEASTIE BOYS - Check Your Head 2LP

Highest recommendation.

It's hard to believe that these guys metamorphosised from ultra-hetero frat-rap jesters to countercultural collage masters so quickly, but I suppose that's what happens when true creative souls are given the means to blossom.

Check Your Head blasts into the red with sweaty, joyous, stank-face energy, so potent that you're practically commanded to groove. The crazy next-level sampling that these guys pretty much pioneered with their previous release is still here, but that shit was, of course, hella expensive ... so it takes a bit of a backseat as the Beasties layer it with live, blown-out funk rock instrumentation.

It's like the Neters playing hardcore! Organic, visionary, spiritual, and just plain bad-fuckin-ass.