Okay, because of my usual slacker ways, I’ve missed the window to recount my excellent Touch & Go adventures and need to get back to the new music because there is just too much good shit in the queue right now.
Today’s post is at first an odd pairing. The Same Channel teams two unlikely foes in a fight against the impending demise of hip-hop and considering this record was produced in only a few weeks, it’s strange that pairings like this don’t occur more often. Cincinatti’s Fat Jon has been a force (albeit a dumbfoundingly invisible one) in the underground hip-hop game for a while. The Five Deez member really pushes the boundaries when it comes to production. While many may claim to put experimental touches on pop production, Fat Jon really is the only one who delivers on the promise of what could be next. Five Deez’s brilliant Kommunicator is easily on of the year’s most slept on records. Not always to a successful end, but I think that diggers 30 years from now will look at his work as WAY ahead of its time.
Styrofoam aka Arne van Petegem is your typical Morr music artist: emotive, melodic, a little twee and undeniably honest. Together, the two have made a very interesting album, mixing Fat Jon’s rhymes and swirling ambient beats with Styrofoam’s melodic sensibility, angular breaks and melancholy vocals. But it definitely works for much of the duration and deserves a listen if not for the courage in attempting to mix its seemingly disparate elements. Loud does not equal dangerous. And soft does not equate safety. Sometimes the best experiments don’t need to yield breathtaking explosions, but more subtle, significant successes.
RIYL: Styrofoam, Five Deez, Anti-Pop Consortium, Populous, Lone Catalysts, hip-house
WATCH: Check out the video for “Spacegangsta” here
BUY: Preorder “Same Channel” at Amazon.com
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS
