Vitamin D deliver a classic, dusty, sound for the headz among you. It's basically spliff-worthy triphop with a healthy funk and soul leaning, and there's no denying it has a certain swagger. The bass kicks are solid and deep, while the keys and production are where the dust collects. It's a nice sound that has it's personality and influences revealed through a number of vocal samples that were probably plucked out of classic and/or obscure blaxploitation films.

1. No Love For Hard Times
2. 9000 Look-A-Likes
3. The Drop By
4. Curse Of The Black Panther
5. Use Your Head
6. Messing Around
7. Rumble In The Park
8. Something Smells Funky
9. The Whole Wide World
10. Fire Island In Dub
11. Hold The Phone For 2 Minutes
12. Chilling In The Land Of Make Believe
13. That's One Sly Fox
14. Eminent Force
15. Rotating The Hips
16. Time Out
17. Way Down Low
18. Illegal Cavity Search
19. Walking Through The Streets
20. Theme From 1971

Vitamin D is the artistic outlet of Cold Busted label owner Derrick Daisey, who started slinging sounds in L.A. in 1991. Since then he's inflicted himself with high frequency hearing loss, due to never wearing earplugs, but still, remains a devout slave to his craft. God bless him. His sound does have a throwback, classic acid jazz sound to it, explained entirely by the breadth and nature of influences that fed his musical demons.

It may take a moment for each song to get started, pending dramatic and/or comedic intros, but once the groove sets in, you can count on very little turbulence changing things up after that. In some books, that's a weakness, but in others, that's what makes it the listening experience that it is. When you take it in small doses, it's some deep stuff, though over the span of a 20-track album, the sound will either bore you or leave you blissfully entranced. It's your call, it's up to your taste. Hard Times is a lush, smooth ride on chunky breakbeats and vintage synth keys and that's pretty much the heart of it. Sold as advertised. Sold as-is.

http://soundcloud.com/eighth-dimension/vitamin-d-hard-times-cold-busted-preview

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