Kobalt 60 - “Kaos From Order” The Best Rap Album of All Time Song released in 1991. Compilation released in 1998. Hip Hop / Britcore
I really don’t have any idea who Kobalt 60 was. All I know is that they were a duo and from the UK. But I also know something else: hip hop junkies who overlook what Britain was putting down between the late 80s and early 90s only do so at their own peril. Some of the shit that came out of that movement tended to knock so fucking hard and it was probably because the country developed a bit of an obsession for breakbeats at the turn of the decade. Acid house producers started sampling breakbeats, which led to the breakbeat hardcore genre, which then gave way to jungle. And as a result, a large number of the Brit-hop lads took a liking to the hard and heavy breakbeats, too, and infused them into their own tracks, thus giving UK hip hop its own definitive sound that set it apart from the US.
So, with that in mind, we can take a look at Kobalt 60′s “Kaos From Order,” the slammin’ title track from their sole 1991 single, which was released on the foundational UK hip hop label, Music Of Life. In 1998, the song was included on a quadruple-disc hip hop comp that mixed UK and US tunes called The Best Rap Album of All Time.
“Kaos From Order” is just a piece of pure, uncut, boom-bappin’, bass thoompin’, wig-flippin’ old school Brit-hop; a pretty perfect example of the type of dope shit the country was crafting back then. It’s hardcore, a little eerie, and goddamn catchy, too. The breakbeat that undergirds the whole thing is a small piece from Tom Jones’ “Looking Out My Window” (which comes with a vocal grunt), to which they add some heavy bass to make the beat hit harder. On top of that, Kobalt 60 sprinkle in some sampled suspenseful string and piano bits throughout the first verse, and then on the second verse, they pour in a weird, but perfectly applied hypnotic sample of some guys who sound something like a set of deep-voiced barbershop singers from hell. I dunno who’s rapping, but the dude’s got a real intense delivery and confident swagger to him, which matches the ferocity of the beat that slaps along behind him.
First-rate early 90s UK hip hop, courtesy of this ephemeral duo that was never heard from again after this song’s release.
