Rob Swift/Various

The second instalment of the Under the Influence series has landed in the lightning-fast hands of Rob Swift, of mighty turntable crew, the X-Ecutioners. The concept allows a DJ to take us on an audio journey of the music that has shaped their career. Interesting, but it doesn’t always produce the most original results. Is it really any surprise that a scratch DJ such as Rob Swift would drop some old funk from the Vibrettes and classic hip-hop from Marley Marl? Rob has dropped numerous mixes in the past that are far better than this, because he tends to branch out a tad more and also lets loose with his technique. It’s not until the end of Under the Influence that Rob really lets things fly with his own "2, 3 Break” with mass amounts of turntable trickery and then follows this with stunning chops over a pair of Bobi Céspedes tracks to bring the project to a close. There’s no denying that the song selection and mixes of this record are great, but the majority of the fantastic mixes that are circulating right now are comprised of mass diversity rather than predictability.