When the first track starts and the vocal snippet unravels, it's evident what Rat Race Vactation is trying for. RHP, who call themselves a "hip hop hybrid" create a piece of music that might come off as trying too hard to be different but establishes RHP's distinct sound. Phon-X handles most of the rhymes and the beats. Praise to anyone who tries to tackle the tasks of beat making and rhyming. The beats are created from mostly synth sounds. If you're partial to sample based music, you might find the drums weak and the overused piano loops annoying. Mr. Covelli and Menant (on bass and guitar respectively) add some live instrumentation to the mix which is refreshing. The comic book superhero voice of Shred Lexicon and the straightforward style of Phon-X would work better together if they had less "experi-mental" beats to work with. At times though, the beats work well on songs like "Spectactular Vernacular" where all the synth sounds fall into place. The thing that bugged me about many of the songs however was Dj Exfyle's presense on about 11 songs, scratching overused samples for the first half minute. Rat Race Vactation is absurd and its an absurdness that define RHP's sound. From the odd choruses (Obese) to the weird spoken word styles (the hidden track), Shred Lexicon and Phon-X have very distinct styles which definately stand out. I think the Regenerated Head Piece might be more effective with total live instru-mentation because many of the songs on the album would be fun to perform live. Craftmanshipwise, Rat Race Vactation is solid. The shortcomings of this album are mainly a matter of taste. - Rajbot