Underground Artist of the Week: ALB Muzic

This weeks underground artist of the weeks' review is ALB Muzic. I had not heard of them before, but googeling underground Portland artists popped them up on a site first and so here we go. ALB Muzic is said to be big in the NW scene. On first look they appear to be well groomed guys who have at least enough profit from their music career to take good photos, which is something many underground artists are not investing in these days. Take advice from me Portland underground sceners, you want good photos to sell your art.
So I went to their soundcloud to see what this group had to offer and found 7 songs uploaded in 2011. Starting with the first song "What more can I say" I immediately noticed that this did not sound like studio quality beats, so from here on out  I will assume they are making these beats at home on a computer. I will not knock that, being I know many people that do, I just suggest people use quality programs if this is there only option.
Song 1 on the soundcloud was called "What More Can I Say" and that is exactly what I was thinking. The vocals are promising and I can see talent in the group, but the song itself lacked content. I wasn't sure at times what they were even saying. Not because I am not up on the local slang, but because the sentences seemed fragmented and unrecognizable, somewhat like Lil Troy's Baller, Shot Caller., which is and will always be Bunny and I's favorite song, but it is impossible to understand or even know what they say from one sentence to another.
There next song was called "Like a Drummer" which was a reference to fucking a girl like a drum. Definitely a fun play on something that most rappers have found a hundred ways to say, but I have never heard the reference of being done "like a drum" before and it did make me crack a smile. The song itself was again in need of some pronunciation, but had promise.
Song # 3 was called "So fly" and unfortunately it wasn't so fly and I ended up changing the song by minute 2:32,but not due to vocals again but repetitive lyrics that lacked something for me to relate to and really feel, so that it made me want to hit repeat till I was sick of it. Something that drives me about music is it's ability to bring you back to a place and time in your life that you can remember exactly what you were doing the minute you heard that song, and the songs I am hearing here are not inspiring life events for me, but they have potential with some fine tuning.
All in all I would give ALB Muzic a 5 out of 10 with what I listened to on Soundcloud. I will say that I may not have heard more up to date music, maybe this was early in their career and we all know how music grows and matures, but for the point of this blog I take what I find first. I look forward to seeing if there is more music by this band online and to see if they have grown over the last few years. Their vocals had definite talent and their beats were not the worst I had heard, we just need to work on being able to understand their lyrics in their songs. Til next week, when I may uncover the secrets of another local underground artist.