Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?

Sometimes you may wonder if Dennis “Dego” Macfarlane ever stepped outside a studio in the 1990s. In 1994, right at the point that he was becoming one of the defining producers of jungle with 4Hero, Tek 9 and his work with Goldie, he also found time to co-produce (with Mysterious K and London Posse’s DJ Bizznizz) and play keyboards and bass on this low-key UK hip hop classic. The mixdown might not be quite up there with what Pete Rock and DJ Premier were up to across the Atlantic at the time, but the sample choices, beat editing and integration of live instruments pretty much is. And the guest MC verses show exactly the kind of confident, cheeky London charm you’d expect from a record with track titles like “Hippy Skippy, Footshaking, Toe Tapping London New Buck Streetdance (Check How Me Gwarn Check How Me Stay!)”, too.