snobb Colin Benders is a really popular Dutch hip-hop star who combines hip-hop with his jazz roots (his uncle is the famous French-American piano jazz musician Jacky Terrasson).In 2009 he founded Hiphop Orchestra - a 24 member collective playing jazz, rock, reggae and hip-hop all in one. He started performing under the name Kyteman with the Hiphop Orchestra and received an almost cult following in clubs around the Netherlands.

On this first album of his new project he plays as a duo with Eric Vloeimans - a respectable Dutch nu jazz trumpeter. The result is a mixed bag - a very musically diverse album that contains a mix of all the previous influences from both musicians. The obvious leader is Benders though - this album's main atmosphere is quite melodic, even pop-oriented hip-hop (with not particularly attractive rap vocals). A lot of it is catchy, even dance-able tunes, electronic rhythms and effects make this album accessible, often even openly commercial oriented. Fortunately there are some jazzy solos (in a few moments almost avant-garde by their nature)so it saves the album from being the clubbing crowd dream.

How attractive is this work for a jazz listener? If you like rap vocals, dance rhythms and catchy acid jazz tunes in your music, possibly you will enjoy this album a lot. Otherwise, a few jazzy improvs from two skilled trumpeters wouldn't be enough to attract your attention, possibly you will even change this CD in the middle of the listening.