After solo releases, freestyle vids, and relentless gigging that included slots on Verb T’s Morning Process tour and last year’s Boom Bap Festival; Moreone and Denziller have dropped their début collaboration, Morbiddenziller. The album sits comfortably within a distinctive sound the emcee’s favour, yet manages to continuously reinvent itself from within. Sam Zircon’s grim bassline on Zircon Air sets the tone, as frosted bells jangle loosely under Moreone’s gloomy flow that matches the queasy cover art. The mood lightens as the duo drop 90’s style rhymes over upbeat guitar loops on Mega Trip; then offer a more modern perspective on society over a dope mid-paced instrumental from Out The Box producer Rebs on Charity Case. A varied beat selection works to the album’s advantage on the previously-released single, Number One Fan, as Reklews assembles an ensemble of eerie sounds with the sparsity of a radiated wasteland, animated by the stylish bars.
Suntzu’s short skit She Was stands out for it’s lyrical honesty, catchy piano loops and hype Redman ad-libs, before the tone descends back into the murky depths with a dusky beat from Drae and a standout verse from Moreone on OG’s Lullaby. After listening to Inspecta Morze’s SP1200 beats on youtube for about a year now, it’s dope to see him get a feature on a UK Hip Hop album; and his chilled boom bap style brings out the best in the MC’s; their flow settling into a groove with a memorable chorus. Guilty was already one of my favourite Drae instrumentals, and with the MC’s riding high on a strong second wind, this well-constructed song makes it two-for-two on the catchy hooks, leading into nothing but straight flows from Moreone on Asswipe. Don Piper manifests a clear ear for melody on Dark Horses, as Moreone and Denziller take the time to respect the UK legends that paved the way for them; then turn their efforts to scripting yet another huge hook that’ll keep your head nodding.
The closing note is an odd one, as Slightly Mad ends on an obscure tone that plays like a hallucinogenic disco-in-hell; but doesn’t detract from the fact that Morbiddenziller is a dope first album that grew in quality as it elapsed in run-time. Both MC’s pen perceptive lines free from posturing and bullshit, blessing every track with articulate rhymes and inventive wordplay over ill production across the board. As they progress musically and hone their sound further, there’s no doubt that the years of work these two rhymers have put into their craft will pay off, and take them where they want to go both musically and physically.
Grab the album for less than twenty Lambert, here.
From the intricate fractal geometries that adorn Out The Box‘s cover art, to the title’s allusion to expanded awareness; it’s clear that the man with the mind behind High Focus Records isn’t shy when it comes to penning esoteric verses steeped in deep content. April sees Fliptrix re-release his 2010 project Theory Of Rhyme on double vinyl, and begin to build momentum for his forthcoming Polyhymnia album by dropping Out The Box, a new collaboration project with South London-based DJ and producer Rebs. This ill remix LPfeatures reinterpretations of 6 of tracks taken from the essential Third Eye Of The Storm album; along with 6 new previously-unreleased songs that illustrate the change in perspective the meditative MC has undergone over recent years.
Much more than an interim release, Out The Box finds the duo devising musical remedies for the modern Hip Hop listener; with cleansing sounds that reinvent the original songs. Reb’s remix of Chemo’s haunting strings on The Storm switches your receiver, taking your perception of the content from Michael Ruppert-style harbingers of cataclysm to messages of hope in the face of adversity. Soundscapes has a similar effect, asFarma G’s bars sound out even clearer over Reb’s otherworldly piano stabs, and Fliptrix’ transcendental chorus lines emerge revitalized and renewed by the remix process. The first new track Smoke Rings is the best on the album; Reb’s simple beat is melodically fulfilling and heavy on that old boom bap stomp, while Fliptrix’s lyrical alignment with peace dominates his heartfelt delivery; with clever use of metaphor, ‘never will I be the fireplace without the coal in’ and intricate rhyme schemes; ‘twilight embarks on the dawn of reality, my thoughts spawn from a sparkle of a fractal dream, rap and beat brought together by the tractor beams, words will travel round the globe, defy gravity.’ Reb’s dub selection skills nearly top the future-garage vibes of Kontigo’s original on The Essence. With Flipz at his most honest and beats that bang this hard, the tune holds the potential to spark off your club night or accompany you on a solitary search for soul purpose, as you reflect on ‘what happened to fun without drugs, and how come everyone fucks but don’t love?’
If you’re in the UK you probably remember Rising’s riotous rhymes on Sammy B Side’s Wordplay Mag mix a few issues ago; the tune packs party-vibes for days with short bursts of verse, and a chorus so huge it could accommodate whole families. Duppying The Style is confident and lyrically creative; with imagery and rhyme schemes that were prevalent on his first few albums, and the title track keeps things upbeat as Rebs draws from the same sample source Illinformed used for Brothers Of The Stone; with Fliptrix channelling a chorus sure to set you smashing mental boxes for fruits of wisdom like Crash Bandicoot on the hunt for apples. His references to the vibrational reality of the universe measured through cymatics and JFK as ‘the only real president’ demonstrate his skill for subtly sign-posting paths towards truth for the listener, using synchronicity-style invitations that always manifest humbly; ‘Do this for a greater reason, my divine purpose, truth hides beneath the surface when I’m writing verses, third eye alignment, vibration’s perfect, time is everything and nothing but it’s never worthless.’ Fan favourite Wylin’ Out gets a mellow make-over as energetic verses course over Reb’s oriental sounds, before Runone’s original Nothing’s Quite As It Seems reincarnates with mystic harp riffs winding through the maze of cryptic content contained in the first verse. Verb T flows slightly less obscure, with standardly clever wordplay and effortlessly inventive flow patterns that hold jewels; ‘Thoughts take strange shape like a mutant, manifest physically, some as pollutants.’
Mutantz energetic flow crackles with anger towards the system, buffered by complicated bars that keep their underlying message simmering beneath the surface. Reb’s inventive sampling gives way to a more computerized cadence on Walk this Way, marking the only miss on an otherwise hitting LP; but still boasts a nimble verse from Bristol-based MC, Buggsy and some cool electro chatter that elevates the chorus. As the album draws to a close, the sombre sounds on Ashes To Ashes find Flipz briefly turning his attention away from the earth, and towards the more business-motivated churnings of the world; addressing the vacant state we’ve been nulled into that finds the majority ‘addicted to consumerism, purchasing to fill the void‘, then posing the poignant question ‘How come humans used to look so beautiful? now every day it’s like their dressing for a funeral, pessimistic state, grey aura in a cubicle.‘
The huge shift Fliptrix made from Third Eye Of The Storm‘s tentative spiritual references still somewhat mired in negativity,to an an almost ego-less cosmic consciousness on The Road To The Interdimensional Piff Highway previously seemed enough of a jump to give Graham Hancock new material; but now with Out The Box the HF figurehead has provided us that missing mental link; and more importantly created an album of hugely enjoyable songs as his spiritually-transcendent, socially prescient lyrics take residence over Reb’s mellow instrumentals.
Pre-order the album at the High Focus website here, or on itunes here in anticipation for it’s release on April 14th. Get itbefore the official release date by buying the Theory Of Rhyme double vinyl.
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