Years in the making... my boy Copuis has finally dropped his solo LP (well OK, it was months ago now, but I've been sleeping on this) Blind Man's Maze, available for free download at Bandcamp... check it:

Blind Mans Maze by Copius

He's been taking his time putting this project together, honing his skills for the last 7 years, and he's wound up with something that sounds really well rounded & complete - mad respect to him for taking his time to produce a proper album, & not just taking the first ten tunes he made & putting them out there like so many hip hop mixtapes out there.

The album opens with a selection of straight boom bap excellence. Didn't ya know - just straight rhyming, showing off his quite nasal, monotone flow and matching it perfectly with the beat - tumbling over it each bar until the last beat which is strictly two syllables. Say wot is a highlight with it's Zifhang penned beat and playful flow.

Lyrically Copius is at his best talking about the simple things, like on Synical Sidewalk Talk - just a celebration of being alive in the city he lives in, oozing immense joy in the everyday. Here he reminds of Cat Empire, talking about stuff which is insignificant, personal, local but which gets at something universal to an extent which can't be reached if you try to go direct.

Slightly weaker moments for me are some of the more introspective tunes which occupy the third quarter or so - while they serve to give the album more of an arc, as individual tunes they wash over me a little, especially Inception, in which I'm not sure what bruceisdead is actually saying. In fact I think he's not really saying anything but using lots of clever sounding words to do it, which is faintly irritating (Maybe I'm being unfair here because of the title, I loved that movie but really, why did everyone seem to think it was so deep & clever? "There's so many levels!" - there were three levels. Three.) Tangential rants aside, these more moody tunes are all well and good and feature some great guest spots from Lou Gold and Brainstorm, but for me they're not 100% working - I can see what he's going for but it's on tunes like Synical Sidewalk Talk where he really gets to the deepness I think he's going for here.

Another superb Zifhang beat graces The Shallow End, as does Sheffield MC Soul who has a curious flow, kind of like a northern version of Sugarhill-era rapping. I can't make up my mind about it, but there's no denying it's distinctive. Beat of the album award should probably go to the Audible Doctor for his 'Church Night' beat on Old When I Die.

Copius is definitely a name to watch in UK hip hop, as a producer, MC and a front man with his live project Burleskimo (cop their EP here: Burleskimo EP). This is a strong first collection with some real solid tunes, in terms of production, lyrics and delivery, though there's a few areas where it still sounds like he's finding his feet a little.