Doseone. Juiceboxxx. Signior Benedick the Moor. These are the guys who
operate within hip hop, but who only really exist there on the surface of the
genre. Dig in a little deeper to any segment of their catalogs, and you’ll be
surprised at how much really goes on. It’s “hip hop” in shelving category only.
After that? All bets are off.
Hailstorm & Maelstrom is
Coin Locker Kid’s addition to the conversation, and it’s a stunner. The tape is
the story of an artist not willing to be confined to genre, or any preconceived
idea, in fact. The inside of the j-card even states, “The story of a boy who disappears
into a beautiful woman,” questioning even the boundaries we place on ourselves
as physical human beings. These are big,
important ideas, and they’re quite au
courant. Start listening to Coin Locker Kid, everybody.
Hints of ragtime (“Ragdoll”), noise (“Boy toy, pts.
1 & 2”), synth pop (“The mannequin”), experimental collagist weirdness
(“The absence of soil, air, and law,” all 13 minutes of it!), punk
(“Superpredator”), musique concrete (“(screamer)”), blue note (“Still”), and
folk (“Begotten”) make appearances, all of them done well. By the time you get
to the end of the album, “Memory of a boy (who doesn’t exist)” (where CLK pulls
a wild-eyed Signior Benedick jam, and perfectly), I’ve almost forgotten that
this started out hip hop.
What a breath of freakin fresh air. This tape’s all
over the place. In a good way. Enjoy these kinds of releases that revel in
their own madness, because they don’t come around too often. They’re a treat.
This is one of those.
--Ryan Masteller
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