Here’s one of four leaked singles from Nine:Fifteen’s debut album, Electric Blanket. Been following Blake9 and Comel_15 since their Irish Car Bomb days. They (and their extended crew) have kept it interesting for me over the years.
I received an advance of the album a few weeks back and listened to it a few times. When these dudes do rap music, they do it well. I wish the entire album was rappity rap music. But it kind of isn’t. Obviously I’m biased though.
Additionally, I’m not super familiar with the other genres they seem to be treading so it’s hard for me to form an opinion w/out sounding uninformed and negative. And the musical experimentation didn’t bother me, I appreciate all that. Even when I hear questionable drums (but see, they’re only “questionable” if it was meant to be a rappity rap song. Ok, I’m stopping myself). I’ll just mention one more thing, that surprised me. I had a hard time digesting the singy songy dude that makes lengthy appearances on a variety of tracks. There’s a wordy review over @ Data Transmission that has this to say: “Along with the involvement of Giant Panda’s Newman, the mic is treated to a shambolic wail leading acoustic improv that celebrates the near-mythical electric blanket, like it’s a comfort device/world-righting weapon, being pursued by a shapeless singing voice coming off as grief-stricken slash highly strung geek with the natural potential to annoy very quickly.” Damn that’s wordy.
But yeah, without getting all detailed, lets just say when I listen to the record I take refuge in most of Blake’s music and Comel’s raps.
Standout hippity-hop tracks: “Beautiful” + “Around Again”. The beat on “Guarded Things” is my shit.
