my regards EP | Precipice | Sana Sana (Remaster/Reissue)

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Shaw Calhoune - my regards EP

For the friends of: Skyzoo, Willie The Kid, Roc Mariano
Genre: hip hop, boom bap
Year: 2022
Country: US
Favorite track(s): ‘amaryllis,’ ‘snapdragons’ and ‘black beauties for cecilia’
Emoji: 🌴
Random words: chillax 

The third EP released in a relatively short time by ‘Shaw Calhoune’ takes a new direction compared to two previous releases. It’s much lighter, laid back, and chill, having an excellent boom bap feeling. What is still the same is the short length of the tracks. Most of them are around or less than 2,5 minutes which is a pretty powerful thing. It makes the listener crave more. The longest track, ‘black beauties for cecilia,’ basically contains two parts. All these different EPs are really showing how versatile and talented MC ‘Calhoune’ is. He needs to be heard more! Interesting to see when a full length album drops out!

Dälek - Precipice

For the friends of: Moodie Black, Cannibal Ox, billy woods
Genre: experimental hip hop, industrial hip hop
Year: 2022
Country: US
Favorite track(s): ‘The Harbingers’, ‘Devotion (when I cry the wind disappears)’ and ‘A Heretic’s Inheritance’
Emoji: 🍂
Random words: possessed 

‘Dälek’s releases are always fascinating and it's interesting what they contain. This time the album contains some distant, darker boom-bap resemblance together with an industrial and partly noisy soundscape that the listeners of ‘Dälek’s previous albums are familiar with. The way how they combine a dark atmosphere with a few slightly more hopeful tracks and sometimes even some ambient guitar moments creates a pretty unique package. It's still pretty easy to approach being not too artsy or noisy. Mostly the flow sounds great but there are a few places where the rhymes somehow feel a bit awkward. As an overall package, the album could be just slightly shorter but luckily there are also many outstanding moments, soundscapes and details.

Moodie Black -Sana Sana (Remaster/Reissue)

For the friends of: Skyzoo, Willie The Kid, Roc Mariano
Genre: hip hop, boom bap
Year: 2011/2022
Country: US
Favorite track(s): ‘Sana,’ ‘Innomatic’ and ‘Tres’
Emoji: 🦂
Random words: chest pain

Wow. Just wow. ’Moodie Black’ has been on the noise rap scene already for some time and is known even as one of the pioneers of the scene. And when thinking about the quality and atmosphere of ‘Sana Sana’, I don’t wonder why ‘Moodie Black’ has such a reputation. The whole soundscape from the very beginning of the album until the very end grasps the listeners and takes them to a dark and twisted world. The aggressive and noisy sound with multiple long instrumental parts creates a way to highlight the moments where the MC spits the flow. ‘Sana Sana’ was released already in 2011, but ‘Moodie Black’ released a remaster/reissue of the album. I don’t typically highlight reissues, but since this is just something out of this world, more people need to hear this!