Force Field

JVC Force’s second and final album doesn’t improve much on Doin’ Damage, though there are a couple moments where the trio comes up with material that ranks close to — but doesn’t quite surpass — their breakthrough “Strong Island” single from two years prior. “It’s a Force Thing” was one of the better hip-house tracks released that year, and the imaginative sampling on “Trivial Pursuit” makes for another impressive cut. The biggest problem with the album is that JVC Force aren’t talented enough MCs to sustain 18 tracks that play out at over an hour. They definitely should receive some credit for sampling Buffalo Springfield’s “Stop” years before Public Enemy; ironically, the group also samples Isaac Hayes’ “Hyperbolic” — the backbone of PE’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,” which was released a couple years before this. – Andy Kellman