Son Raw is collaborating with a bassoonist.
This was bound to happen sooner or later. London label Night Slugs’ love of street wear and rap music knows no limits even as the squad spends most of its creative energy transmuting those influences into a twisted version of urban house. Meanwhile, the Main Attraktionz have been making production choices so cloudy and ethereal that they could conceivably soundtrack yoga classes and Berkeley sit-ins: if anyone was going to skip Brostep and draw for the good stuff, they’d be prime candidates.
Yet for all of the on-paper obviousness of this collaboration – “somewhat-hyped producer works with somewhat-hyped rap group!” – this works perfectly, playing to the strengths of each party while negating their weaknesses. Jam City gets capable soloists to add definition to his sometimes sketchy production while Bambino and Mondre get based beats that don’t sound like they were recorded in between Adult Swim’s commercial breaks. The results are as low stakes you’d expect from the B-side of a vinyl only single but there’s nothing wrong with that, I’d much rather listen to these guys lazily extolling the virtues of Sega Dreamcast than the overblown riff-rap promised by whatever abomination Cypress Hill and Rusko are working on. Call it bass X based.
