So… This Is It – AeromosDax (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Like most generic labels, the term hip-hop is fairly redundant in the modern age. There was a time when you knew what you were getting when you saw music badged and tagged with the term. But 50 years of experimentation, boundary-pushing and natural (and sometimes eldritch) evolution means that it is a term too broad to be particularly relevant.

And AeromosDax is a great example of just why this is the case. Sure, he makes music that echoes with hip-hop’s tones but it is as if once the songs are written most of those elements are robbed out and replaced with strange electronica and warped sonics. The result is an odd new form of haunted electronica built on a hip-hop template.

Take the opening track, the intriguingly named Dissarayed Z’s (the moments that keep you awake,) a creeping blend of disjointed beats and disenfranchised sounds which perfectly encapsulates those sleepless nights when you can’t shut down all of the unbidden thoughts which fire through the brain’s synapses. An odd yet perfect opening salvo for what is to follow. It isn’t until track three, Paper Swans V. The Tidal Wave, that we hear the hip-hop elements of the album kick in but even then they are understated and distant, the spoken word and rapped narratives remaining the focal point.

And the choice of words is interesting, the lyrics are what really sets things apart from the competition. Whereas most people working in the broad urban/rap/hip-hop seem to be driven by self-aggrandisement and bragging, here the words come on more like a sort of reflective street gospel, gritty words of wisdom and urban philosophies. Sure, there is talk of the hassle and the hustle of life on the streets but the way that these stories are told, the references used and the truths revealed makes it all feel more like new mythologies being recorded and expressed through music.

Any Percent Street Run seems to ride a nu-jazz wave, Shower Thoughts uses shimmering sonics and chiming percussion to create the sounds of the water cascading down as the narrator is lost in his thoughts and Atop Mt. Molehill is an urban sermon etched with glitchy electronica, a stream of consciousness outpouring caged with fragile musical inclusions.

So… This Is It is the sound of hip-hop reaching a new plateau, one so far removed from the 70’s street corners and youth centres of South Bronx where it all began as to be something altogether new. But whether this is a new strand of the existing genre or something else altogether is a moot point. It is what it is. And what it is…is revolutionary.