Doseone - Untitled (192)

I am still in complete and utter shock that I was lucky enough to come across this recording. I am a huge fan of most, if not all, of Adam's work; after listening to Untitled, there's no doubt in my mind that this is an essential piece of work that all of his fans need to have in their collection. Dose has come a long way since his Hemispheres days, incorporating more of an electronic sound into his albums, and while I still love all of that, this is the real deal: raw, simple beats and nasally voice spitting incredibly catchy, intelligent lyrics at the listener. This is what hip-hop is meant to be.

"And in this instance, I am the deadliest of carnivores.
Doseone,
the messiah of metaphor."

Ghost Mountain - Summer Tapes EP (320)

I remember the first time I heard Ghost Mountain. The video for Eye Rings was in my 'Recommended Videos' list on YouTube and had a pretty cool still shot, so I decided to check it out. Being someone who had just stopped listening to Mindless Self Indulgence and just started listening to Animal Collective, Ghost Mountain was like nothing I had ever heard before (it still isn't really like anything else out there, for the record). This Black Moth Super Rainbow influenced duo from Texas have been blowing my socks off from day one with their psychedelic rhythms and catchy beats. Daniel Berkowitz's vocals are also something fresh that often add something very special to Ghost Mountain's already unique sound.

Favorite tracks: Eye Rings, The Tree Wall, Star in my Wishing Well, Ninja Turtles

My rating: 9.3/10

Download it here. If you liked it as much as I did, order one of the awesome homemade VHS tapes that has all the songs and their videos (that are made of tapes found at garage sales and the like) and comes with a CD and a poster that has all the lyrics on it, along with other Ghost Mountain merch here!

WHY? - Alopecia (V0)

A big mistake of mine was avoiding Alopecia for months, simply because I thought the cover was weird. I mean, horses running on a cloud with hands coming out of another cloud? I didn't know what was going on with this 'hip-hop' group, and I didn't especially care.

Like I said, this was a big mistake.

I finally decided to give WHY?'s Alopecia a fair chance one day. I didn't just like this album the first time I heard it, I was completely blown away. From the first snare hit (which is actually a motorcycle chain dropping on concrete) on The Vowels Pt. 2, I was utterly hooked on WHY?'s unique instrumentation and Yoni Wolf's clever, vague, mesmerizing lyrics. The album often ranges in style, from the fucked-upedness of Good Friday, to the up-beat annunciation of love and stalking on Simeon's Dilemma. Each song tells a different story, confesses a different emotion and makes the listener feel a different amount of vulnerability than the one before it. Even the one minute long closing song, Exegesis, offers an enjoyable, yet haunting listening experience.

From start to finish, there is never a dull moment on Alopecia. It is truly the perfect album.

Favorite songs: The Vowels Pt. 2, Good Friday, Song of the Sad Assassin, Fatalist Palmistry, A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under, Simeon's Dilemma, Exegesis

My rating: 11/10

Billy the Kid did what he did and he died.