JOEY VALENCE & BRAE — ‘NO HANDS’

Writer’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Not even a year after their eclectic debut, ’PUNK TACTICS’, Joey Valence and Brae have returned to our speakers with another rip-roaring display of pure fun, all condensed into half an hour of tracks that all go full whack, no breaks, throughout.

There’s a major gap in the market for music that is just genuinely fun and these lads have filled this void effortlessly, with this offering leaning away a little from The Beastie Boys-esque styles they used a lot on their previous album, whilst still keeping some of their sensibilities, and taking more influence from a hip-hop and boom bap revival standpoint this time out.

Record scratches, deep drum kicks and synths blare throughout the opener ‘BUSSIT’, an opener that sets the tone perfectly for the record, even including a small nightcore break in the middle of the track. This then jumps right into the track ‘PACKAPUNCH’ that features a fantastic verse from Danny Brown, a man who just fits into the world of JVB almost too perfectly. After his antics on his excellent record with JPEGMAFIA last year, ‘Scaring The Hoes’, Danny’s skills to spit across wild and random beats, whilst delivering some jaw dropping bars is a skillset that the boys can work with in tandem quite easily. If you need to know what Danny’s about on this track just skip to 2:03 in this song and you’ll get it.

The old school hip-hop elements continue into the title track, where the boys go full on Rizzle Kicks, spitting over even more record scratches and an instrumental headed by this glorious lead saxophone. The nerdy bars are just one of the many positives this album has and being such a big fan of Call Of Duty Zombies, hearing Brae say, “Living life like it’s double XP weekend, pack a punched ray gun type feeling” got me a little giddy, I won’t lie. On the Rizzle Kicks comparison too, they certainly do cross over from a musical standpoint in more ways than one and with a potential return for one of the UK’s most beloved duo’s, a collab with JVB would not look out of place in the future.

The glitchy and electronic ‘LIKE A PUNK’ seems like the track that could be most suited to being on ‘PUNK TACTICS’. It’s a pretty standard JVB track with a repetitive hook but with an instrumental so interesting, it doesn’t need much to carry it forward and keep listeners engaged. That repetition is used throughout the album, with ‘WHERE U FROM’ doing so as well and using some of the video game influenced production that was seen throughout parts of their first album, with the high pitched keys making it very reminiscent of gaming ost’s from the 90s, giving the track a great nostalgic feel.

‘THE BADDEST’ is quintessential JVB. They challenge the social construct of being “the baddest bitch in this club” and the song should bring you the conclusion that no matter what race, gender, sexuality or social class, anyone can be a bad bitch. Philosophical analysis aside, this track is a fantastic club banger and really illustrates what these two want to do with their music, as they bring a more west coast 2000’s type vibe on this one, with even a bit of Lil Jon sprinkled in there too from Brae.

‘OK’ brings that retro hip hop and west coast influence back in with Joey sounding at home on this beat, bringing possibly his best flow I’ve heard from him, across an instrumental that screams head banging whilst cruising in a low rider. In terms of Brae’s rapping ability, he certainly isn’t going to win any awards for it, however, their chemistry as a duo alleviates it quite a lot and his natural silliness and charisma works well across the majority of the album.

‘DOUGHBOY’ and ‘WHAT U NEED’ are more examples of the variation of sounds across this record and how much the vibe switches to and from throughout different tracks, with the former taking on the old school hip-hop sound and the latter giving us another electronic influenced, club style bop.

‘JOHN CENA’ is another track to get your head banging, filled with those whirring synths, backing vocals changing pitch throughout and just another perfect example of their character, with multiple meme and wrestling callbacks in their lyrics on a song that suits those references handedly. The album is then closed out with ‘OMNITRIX’, a finisher that utilises a beat that isn’t really like anything we’ve heard them on before, but it gives them a chance to give us some unorthodox flows and it works out well. Joey is clearly a talented rapper and obviously a big fan of rap, so I could see him wanting to go down a more serious route, but the formula him and Brae have right now is pure gold and I see no reason to change that.

These two are everything good about viral music and even better, they’ve proven that they aren’t a flash in the pan. High profile features like Logic on their last album and Danny Brown on this one further shows their status in the game even at such an early point in their career. There is clearly an element of respect from their peers and rightfully so, they’ve got a really unique selling point and a killer live show in them as well. Bring on that third album.