Posts Tagged ‘Hip-Hop’

KiKu – Suzhou / It’s All The Rage (feat. Blixa Bargeld & Black Cracker)

Posted: 12 September 2026 in Albums, Reviews
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Everest Records – 25th September 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

What we effectively have here is a pair of EPs from Swiss avant-garde act KiKu, led by trumpeter and composer Yannick Barman and drummer and percussionist Cyril Regamey, each one a collaboration – but rather than rendering them separate works, what we get is an album of two distinct halves, conceived, we’re told, as a diptych: ‘two distinct bodies of work held together by a shared musical architecture’, where, ‘on one side, Blixa Bargeld moves through language with precision, restraint and abrasion. On the other, Black Cracker turns language into rhythm, pressure and momentum. Between them, KiKu constructs a dense, unstable framework of trumpet, drums, sampler and electronics’. The result is something akin to a split album, on which the two sides of KiKu are as much a defining feature as their collaborators.

The first of the four works with Bargeld, ‘Orlando’s Victory,’ slides in with some retro-vibing electropop which isn’t a million miles away from late-career Leonard Cohen. Simmering synths strike some dramatic shapes and brooding tones atop a slightly shuffling, trip-hop infused beat. ‘The Number of the Millibeast’ is a slice of dark storytelling, a minimal, almost folky instrumental provides the backing for a half-sung, half spoken narrative, delivered with a theatrical flourish, before ‘Suzhou XX XY YX YY’ continues in the same sonic vein, while the lyrics become more abstract. The instrumentation becomes ever sparser and the lyrical cohesion crumbles with each successive piece, culminating in the flickering pulse and gasping weirdness of ‘Nonsense Rock ‘n’ Roll’, which seems to be a moan about some people playing music in the street in the night which rapidly escalates in divergent directions. The atmosphere is that of late-night, downtown, smoke and rough liquor, Bargeld adopting a persona that’s a bit Tom Waits, a bit Charles Bukowski, but which comes across with a hint of grizzled old man, chewed up and ground down by life, veering erratically between raconteur and curmudgeonly malcontent. ‘Do I like the music? No! Nonsense!”

While it’s Regamey’s percussion which sits to the fore on the Bargeld cuts, it’s Barman’s brass which takes the lead on ‘Bull Whip’, the first of four ‘bull’- themed tracks with Black Cracker. ‘So much road rage / so much road kill’, Black Cracker reflects. His delivery here is soulful yet sad, and the trip-hop vibe of ‘Suzhou’ makes a subtle but distinct switch to hip-hop on ‘It’s All The Rage’. ‘Leaping Bull (Chicago)’ is different again, and something deep within the song – the way the mournful trumpet which echoes out over stuttering beats, and Black Cracker’s grizzled, world-weary vocal, vaguely reminiscent in its patina to Mark Lanegan – tugs at half-forgotten emotions and a sense of memories of the past, hazed by time. And then, halfway through, it switches to a dense, droning slab of dark hip-hop, tense and twitching with angst. Coming out of nowhere, it hits hard, but paves the way for ‘The Running of the Bulls’, where bleak instrumentation and soulful but anguished vocals combine to convey a sense of conflict between the interior and the exterior. ‘Sleeping Bull’ notably is subtitled ‘Woke’ in parenthesis, and its lyrical and sonic latticework makes for a compelling combination while reminding us where the term ‘woke’ actually came from. It’s absurd to think that it’s been adopted as a pejorative term, predominantly by white, right-wing wanksacks. It’s high time to reclaim it, and to not only be woke, but woke and proud.

Decidedly more downtempo and downbeat than ‘Suzhou’, ‘It’s All The Rage’ feels less driven by anger or rage than it conveys an aching sadness, the kind that permeates the body to the core, and makes the limbs and the very heart weigh heavy. As a whole, Suzhou / It’s All The Rage is very much an album of two halves, precisely as intended. And as contrasting as the two sides are, they do, most definitely compliment one another, and, perhaps more importantly, they tap different triggers for response. It’s a multifaceted work, and most certainly an album to chew on.

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Wheelchair Sports Camp – oh imperfecta

Posted: 17 May 2026 in Albums, Reviews
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Alternative Tentacles – 15th May 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

Well, you can’t complain a band’s name is in bad taste when one of its member is, as their own website puts it, ‘a wheelchair-using, profanely queer and tiny rapper, with a very distinctly high-pitched sense of humor’. And instead of politely skirting the whole disability – because people are, even now, funny, awkward, uncomfortable about these things – WSC shove it right in your face. No shame, no embarrassment – not that there should be, of course, but these guys pretty much shit all over propriety and political correctness, in a way that simply doesn’t tend to happen anymore.

Anti-PC ‘comedy’ artistes, the likes of Roy “Chubby” Brown and Kevin Bloody Wilson are adored by the kind of cunts vote Reform and bemoan the fact that you can’t say anything racist anymore should rightly be criticised and deplatformed, given that their ‘humour’ is based on derision and mockery, punching down to use a popular current phrase. Wheelchair Sports Camp, however, invert that exploitation and reclaim the ground that’s rightfully their in the most uncompromising and wilfully tasteless of manners.

Oh Imperfecta sees the hip-hop duo go punk – and it’s not only being released on Alternative Tentacles, but features guest vocals by Jello Biafra, alongside a host of other guests. And this is punk at its most unapologetically trashy, thrashy, bursts of noise and scratchy guitars pitched against explosive beats and grinding synths. There’s nothing subtle about this, and nor is there intended to be. Single cut ‘Eat Meat’ is exemplary: a simple riff, simple and repetitive lyrics, Kalyn Rose Heffernan’s squeaky vocals possessing a childlike quality –the lyrics not so much. She sounds, at times, like an evil Gremlin, cackling away and raising a middle finger to the world. This is what empowerment looks and sounds like: this is the very definition of rebellion, of not giving a fuck.

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‘DENIM ft. RAREBYR$’ (only one of four of sixteen songs on the album which breaks the three-minute barrier) sees Heffernan and her ‘gimp’ Greggy (drums) revisiting their hip-hop roots, and ‘on HOLD ft. Junia-T’ is an exercise in bleak, minimal hip-hop which delves into dark and experimental territory: both are quite a contrast with primitive punk of ‘DEAD ft. Jello Biafra + Olivia Jean’ – and then there are the interludes, which feature snippets of dialogue and what appear to be answerphone messages. With ‘no stopping NO STANDING ft. Junia-T’ introducing a busy jazz element, oh imperfecta is an album which is a wild and varied ride.

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Watch: ‘Normalized Tragedy’ by dälek

Posted: 27 March 2026 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Today, experimental Hip-Hop legends dälek release their latest full-length album, Brilliance of a Falling Moon.

Conceived, composed, and produced by Will Brooks (aka MC dälek) and Mike Mare, Brilliance of a Falling Moon is a sprawling, uncompromising record that speaks to the political timbre of the day. Taking its name from a section of Erik Larson’s 2011 novel In The Garden of Beasts, the album paints a fiery portrait of life and resistance in fascist America.

Recorded in the group’s Deadverse Studios over the course of 2024 and 2025, Brilliance of a Falling Moon’s beats are propelled by brutal, dust-caked drum breaks and cloaked in an ominous, otherworldly atmosphere. Taking aim at everything from The State’s suppression of information to colonialism and Trump’s demonization of immigrants, Brooks’ rhymes are practically burning with outrage at the current state of the world.

“When you listen to this, I hope you walk away with hope because we’re still fighting, building, and pushing.”

Check out the new video for ‘Normalized Tragedy’ below:

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Not only has dälek always presented an undiluted political stance in their music, the band is part of the continuum of bold, revolutionary hip-hop pioneered by Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad. dälek has spent decades carving out a unique niche fusing hardcore Hip Hop, noise and a radical approach to sound.

Founded by Will Brooks (aka MC dälek) and Alap Momin (aka Oktopus), dälek debuted in 1998 with Negro Necro Nekros, a sonic tour de force built upon thunderous drums, blissful ambient sections, and gritty, insightful lyrics. On watershed albums like 2002’s From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots (2002), Absence (2005), Abandoned Language (2007), and 2009’s Gutter Tactics (2009), dälek laid a template that added completely new textural and structural dimensions to rap music.

With this kind of musical and political pedigree, it makes sense that dälek would return with such a timely record that reflects all of our frustrations.

Once again the band has teamed up with artists Paul Romano and Mikel Elam for the striking package artwork.

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Photo credit: Jonny-Scala

M-G Dysfunction – Mista Self-Isolation

Posted: 20 June 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Panurus Productions – 20th June 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

You’d think that cassette labels would be not only niche, but few and far between, and in the main, they are, but Newcastle is home to not one, but two labels who provide a near-endless supply of releases to satiate the need for weird shit the world over, with Cruel Nature Records being one, and Panurus Productions being the other. The labels have a considerable amount in common, too, not least of all in that they both favour music that’s of a quality, rather than a style.

The latest Panurus release is a perfect case in point. The label’s previous offering, a split release from Belk and Casing was a raw blast of guitar overdrive. In contrast, the third album from M-G Dysfunction is of an altogether more experimental bent, leaning toward hip-hop and beat-driven electronics, but once again marking the close connection between the scenes in Leeds and Newcastle, both of which have become significant spawning grounds for the offbeat, the difficult, the wilfully obscure.

According to the blurb, ‘Mista Self-Isolation is the fullest realisation of the M-G Dysfunction project to date – a record of trepidation and humour, of lopsided passion and warped poetics. This album is about surveying the wreckage of monoculture and navigating the act of making music amidst a land-grab of rights, melodies and rhythms by people who never liked music in the first place. It’s about properly honest artistic expression – what “keeping it real” looks like, sounds like, feels like in 2024. It’s about getting some official beats and saying fly shit over them.’

That it’s quirky may be obvious, but it’s a necessary headline observation. On the one hand, it’s white rap, so there’s an awkwardness, but on the other, there’s some dirty experimental electronic noise layered over the beats, and this is an act that shared a stage with Benefits, a band who may have made their reputation by being angry, shouty, and noisy, but who aren’t without humour or an appreciation of nuance.

As tracks like ‘Roger Daltrey (Permanent Record)’ illustrate, M-G Dysfunction are multifaceted – something likely to leave many quite nonplussed. How can they do jokey, daft, a bit random and be serious at the same time? In truth, the answer is simple: because human beings are complex creatures, capable of a vast range of emotions and infinite ways of expressing them. It’s something we seem to have lost sight of in recent years, when everything has been boiled down to binaries, and everything is a conflict because the lines have been marked in such either / or terms. It’s no longer possible to be a woolly socialist: suggest that, I dunno, people on disability benefits are right to receive free prescriptions, and you’re labelled a left-wing extremist, a communist, and by the way, disabled people should get back into work or die. Something is severely fucking wrong with this picture.

Back in the early 90s, genre crossovers were all the rage, and the Judgement Night soundtrack was a real watershed moment that took the idea of rock / rap crossover, first witnessed in the mainstream when Run DMC and Aerosmith did ‘Walk This Way’ to the next level. At that time, it felt like a new future was emerging, and perhaps, even a future where boundaries and differences were dismantled. But here we are, and times are bleak.

But with Mista Self-Isolation – an album which is by no means an exercise in buoyant pop tunes – M-G Dysfunction show that in 2025, there is still scope to create something that speaks of what it is to be human.

The structured, beat-led songs are interspersed with self-reflective spoken word segments, spanning CBT meditation and contemplations on experiences and life in general. It is truly impossible to predict the twists and turns this album takes.

’50 Words for Blow’ comes on like a hip-hop-inspired barber’s shop quartet, while ‘John Wick’ is a critical memo, and the title track is abstract, minimal, dreamy but quietly intense. ‘Junglists Only’ is a perfectly executed pseudo-banger which knows it’s absurd and works because of it. The last song, ‘All that is Solid Melts into Deez Nuts’ evokes both humour and at the same time draws attention to M-G Dysfunction’s hip-hop credentials. If you know, you know, as cunts say, but for those who don’t, it’s a reference to Dr Dre’s ‘Deeez Nuuuts’ from The Chronic in 1992.

Postmodernism is alive and well after all, at least in some quarters, and it’s very well in the world of M-G Dysfunction. There is a lot going on on Mista Self-Isolation – and it’s all good.

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Oscar Mic – Sun Star

Posted: 16 July 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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12th July 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

As genre crossovers go, Post-Punk/Alt Hip Hop is quite a rare one. Perhaps not as radical or as extreme as the kind of crossovers with alternative and metal bands and hip-hop acts that took place on the groundbreaking Judgement Night soundtrack in the early 90s, but at this point in time, where pretty much anything goes, this is unusual. Actually, I’d like to step back from that for a moment. Not so long ago, it felt as if anything went, that postmodernism had truly reached its peak and you could have grindcore with a kazoo and not be too surprised. More recently, while pockets of weirdness are strongly entrenched – as the recent Guardian article on Nerdcore, which managed to mention Petrol Hoers and BxLxOxBxBxY, both vehicles for beardy, ferret-keeping, pant-wearing York legend Dan Buckley (disclosure – Noisenibor performed a one-off collaboration with him in his guise as Danny Carnage, which was everything you’d expect) – things seems to have become more siloed, more set, more fixed, when it comes to genre parameters. Fluidity and crossovers remain, but wild invention seems to have given way to something of a return to convention.

‘Imagine Beck meets Sleaford Mods, meets Slowthai’ the bio says. Only, listening to this, you don’t have to imagine.

What’s noteworthy about these touchstones is that two are very white, and two are very British, the British acts both being overtly political, while all three draw on elements of hip-hop in their work. None of this is to denigrate anything about Oscar Mic or ‘Sun Star’, and nor is it a criticism to comment that it’s a hip-hop tune which is overtly white, as delivered by a pale guy with a vaguely gingery moustache. It’s a true testament to multiculturalism and artistic cross-pollination, and what’s more, ‘Sun Star’ boasts some truly sinister bass frequencies which strike way low and hit hard like subsonic torpedoes beneath the shuffling beat that clatters away nonchalantly all the way. Toss in some Beastie Boys and you’re getting a sense of where this is at.

Then there’s the really melodic indie break, and the thing has something of a quirk / arty / studenty vibe, while the video bursts with experimental oddness. And when you piece it all together… it’s gloriously mismatched and off-kilter. And we should celebrate its non-conformity.

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T.N. – Siddung

Posted: 2 January 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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15th December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

This is an odd one which will likely baffle and bewilder many of those who encounter it – which will likely be far fewer than it deserves. It’s rare for a track that isn’t thrash or grindcore to run to less than a minute and a half, for a start. I know absolutely nothing about T.N. beyond that they’re from Spain, but T.N.’s ‘Siddung’ is a sliver of minimalist hip-hop that sends a shiver down the spine.

If commercial hip-hop has come to be synonymous with bragging and banging, flashing cash and blades, it’s worth remembering that its roots were a different kind of ‘street’, and with acts like Last Poets emerged from spoken word, the jazz and beat scene of the late 50s, giving a voice to black culture and the civil rights movement.

This track is something of a hybrid – it’s ‘street’ but it’s introspective and uncomfortable, and after an atmospheric introduction, halts just as it seems to be finding its groove. It’s difficult to unravel the track’s meaning or intent: ‘siddung’ is patois for ‘sit down’ – as the cover art relays in a literal sense – but beyond that…?

It feels more like a sketch than a complete song, but one could imagine an album containing maybe twenty or so of these vignettes would add up to paint a quite compelling picture.

Ooberfuse – Hard Times ft Snoop Dogg

Posted: 24 December 2023 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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1st December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

I’m aware that there’s a conspicuous absence of rap and hip-hop to be found in my coverage. I suppose that’s largely because it doesn’t really fit the rubric I envisaged for Aural Aggravation when I decided to do my own thing back in 2015. But occasionally I worry that this feels discriminatory, not to mention unjustly dismissive, of a huge swathe of music that could well appeal not only to myself, but visitors to the site. The fact I’ve raved about dälek on more than one occasion not only evidences that I’m not completely hip-hop averse, but also reminds me of the same. Some hip-hop is pretty dark, and also pretty heavy.

Snoop Dogg isn’t a name one commonly associates with dark or heavy, and my interest in this release was in fact piqued by noticing that Ooberfuse are playing a tiny venue in York ten minutes up the road from me here in York next week. How does an act who’s just released single with Snoop come to be doing that? The music industry is screwed, but it’s clear Ooberfuse aren’t doing it for the fame or the glory.

Said single, ‘Hard Times’ represents the best of hip-hop. It is dark, and it is heavy, and comes with a hard social message.

That many people find Christmas a challenging time, and in particular the homeless, is widely documented, but this documentation tends to remain the domain of the further corners of news outlets and adverts from charities. But against a stark, dark musical backing – and this is when hip-hop is absolutely at its best.

The first-person lyrics are direct and powerful, and backed by a shuffling beat and stark piano, it’s a hard-hitting track paired with an equally powerful video. One gets the impression that Snoop’s contribution serves primarily to draw attention – and I say ‘good’. This track needs to be heard and people really need to fucking listen. In a world where we have billionaires, there should be no such thing as poverty.

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Splat R. – Kill Spill Thrill

Posted: 8 December 2023 in Albums
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Panurus Productions – 1st December 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

What better way to mark the start of advent than with a new release on Newcastle’s Panurus Productions, home of noisy and weird shit on tape, eh?

This latest offering covers both bases, being noisy and weird, but predominantly weird.

Panurus releases always come with cracking explanatory notes, and they’re worth quoting for this one, too:

‘Glitching and laced with interference from its temporal transit, Splat R. intercepts nine broadcasts of lo-fi noise drenched beats from a possible future. Hooks lead you through what could be samples, generated electronica or interference noise, that at times meshes and augments the beat and others swells over and underneath it with a sense of menace. There’s a sense of retro-future to the album in its tones and the recognisability of some of the sound used, but presented as if those ideas were carried further forward before being thrown back towards us, warped and distorted; as if it was constructed from pieces of culture scavenged in the aftermath of some distant cataclysm.’

My work here is done.

Of course, I’m not being entirely serious, but whereas many press releases bring a heap of hype, much of which is a world apart from the product being presented, or otherwise fails to really explain what the release is about, Panurus always absolutely nail it in their summaries.

But of course there is more. ‘Kill Spill Thrill’ is a murky, messy mash-up which evokes The Last Poets, Dalek, and RZA’s Bobby Digital, as well as glitched-up, chewed-up, mangled elevator music. It’s chilled-out hip-hop, trip-hop, and ambient tossed together, melted down, and left to fester and ferment for a while. ‘peace to you, if you’re willing to fight for it’ adds a whole load of wrecking bass and distortion to the bubbling dingy mess, lurching into the territory of dirty experimental industrial noise in the vein of Throbbing Gristle, only with samples thrown in hither and thither. ‘reality denied comes back to haunt’ is plain fucking horrible: lurching booms of thunderous noise and trills of feedback and wailing synths pushed to their limits in a power electronics meltdown suddenly segues into a crackling mess of club-friendly dance, but distorted in a nightmarish way.

‘authentic creation is a gift to the future’ lurches so hard as to reach the pit of the stomach, before ‘there is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns’ pumps a beefy beat that’s pure nightclub – but obviously, the vibe is anything but buoyant or euphoric. It’s bad trip, apocalyptic, the dance dynamics distorted to the shade of a nightmare, fizzing sparks and subsonic detonations occurring simultaneously, like a nuclear blast landing a direct hit on a night club.

I can’t decide if I need to puke or shit as the messy mass of stuttering overload stammers and rolls and lurches onwards. This is glitch of the highest order: the briefest, almost imperceptible of stammers are amplified to the most uncomfortable, blurring, bilious horrors which emulate the worst post-binge room-spin.

Kill Spill Thrill is a splurging, intestinal-churning, head-shredding sonic attach that lands thick and heavy. For all of its touchstones, it doesn’t sound quite like anything else, and it rips the ground before it to devastating effect.

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Watch: ‘Air Raid’ by Jeshi

Posted: 23 September 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Both deft and wacky this new single sees Jeshi return with a signature bang. Lyrically, he’s at his best and never sacrifices on ambition even when delving into detail.

Beginning with a knight in a suit of armour wistfully watching videos of galloping horses on an iPhone, the visual is a wild ride from the first frame to its final. Filmed in East London, local landmarks like the historic George Tavern form the atmospheric backdrop to the hilarious ‘Big Knight Out’. Jeshi has cultivated a cult following who expect nothing but the best from the AIM award winner’s visual offerings. It’s safe to say he never disappoints.

The video which was directed by previous ‘Sick’ collaborator Francis Plummer, known predominantly for his photography (Stussy, Bone Soda, The Face), who proves direction is a skill he truly excels in.

With production by early Jeshi collaborators by Max Frith and Cajm.

Jeshi explains the making of ‘Air Raid’: “We went and stayed in this house in the middle of a field in Wales to work on the project and ‘Air Raid’ was one of the tracks we made in that living room. We were all losing our shit so hype on it jumping around the room playing it over and over… happy to have it out in the world now.

Soon as we made the song we wanted to have a knight getting sturdy to it and Francis just built on that for the video idea… we follow his quest through London to link me at the pub.”

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This year Jeshi hasn’t stopped. With the touring schedule of an 80s rock band Jeshi has stunned festival crowds at Glastonbury, Project 6, We Love Green, Outbreak, Dour, Midi, Latitude, Luzern Live, Sundown & Warehouse Projet’s Repercussions. He also managed to fit in playing his first headline show in Tokyo and time to front campaigns with Nike Air Max and Dr. Martens. On top of that Jeshi secured his second Top Boy soundtrack feature with ‘Killing Me Slowly” appearing on the final season opening Episode 2. Cementing his impending global domination fans can look forward to enjoying ‘Protein V2 ft. Obongjayar & WESTSIDE BOOGIE’ while playing the new EA FC24 game (out 29th September).

Since his critically acclaimed EP ‘Bad Taste’, Jeshi has been creating an enviable legacy of work. Arriving in May of 2023, Jeshi shared his ‘era-defining’ debut album ‘Universal Credit’ with the world. Incredibly multidimensional, ‘Universal Credit’ was searing, personal, relatable & humorous. Wowing critics and fans alike it had an undeniable impact.

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Credit: Francis Plummer

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