AllArticleFeaturesInterviewReviewSingleAll Article Features Interview Review Single Balter Festival Repping The UK Hip Hop Scene Once AgainWe went to Balter last year. Chepstow’s little festival with a rep for going seriously hard, went over and above its reputation, blew our tiny minds to kingdom come and was so good that we’re going again this year! Running from the 25th to 28th May. Tickets are still available HERE. If you haven’t been before, Balter is basically a mini mecca for every strain of bass conceivable. Think like big ravey Boomtown vibes on a smaller site that you […] VIEW MORE +Finding Beauty in the Lost with Frankie WorrallFor the Lost… listens how home VHS footage looks- soft and pure yet full of bittersweet emotion. The experiences that producer and songwriter Frankie Worrall underwent through the making of this project are written all across the music; in the face of transient and evocative melodies, steady kicks march forward as Frankie’s host of vocalists reflect on what they themselves have lost, too. “What For the Lost… comes out of is that I lost my mum to cancer in March […] VIEW MORE +Making S.M.O.R.E.S. (So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously) with Slug (of Atmosphere)Slug’s been doing this so long intentionality has lost its meaning. So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously is Atmosphere’s seventh album, he tells me. It’s been their seventh album for the last ten or so albums, it later turned out. The project is an ambitious interdimensional odyssey, covering just about every genre, colour palette and mood. From delicate piano solos to booming dub basslines, it almost feels like hip hop’s response to Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, captured through Slug […] VIEW MORE +Planky – Rescue Me (Ft. 2nd Generation Wu)Fresh off a two year hiatus – UK Producer Planky returns with a huge collab with 2nd Generation Wu ‘Rescue Me’ is out now via Rekkit Records and available on all the usual DSPs. The track features iNTeLL (son of U-God) & PXWER (Son of Method Man) dropping signature Staten Island bars over a soulful banger of a beat from Planky – with live drums courtesy of Louis Sellers and bass from Dean Gladwyn. Check out the single below, and […] VIEW MORE +16 Years of Fliptrix‘Mantra No. 9’, the debut single from Fliptrix’s eponymous ninth album, was released on 09/09/22. It is the ninth track on the project and is composed of nine letters. “Nine is the highest number before you go back to one’s and zero’s”, he explains… VIEW MORE +Down The Rabbit Hole with Onoe CaponoeA neon glow spilled out of the doorway, as did smokers. The gallery’s open-plan layout gave an almost demonic reverb to the music blasting out of the speakers. A mysterious, magnum-infused concoction was served upon entrance (shout out @pinkydrinksldn). Meanwhile, some polish guy in a balaclava shouts “169!” outside the toilets. Reality and fiction tend to intertwine in the presence of Onoe Caponoe. In many ways, this magical realism strikes to the very heart of ‘Concrete Fantasia’, the third chapter […] VIEW MORE +OXFORD RESEARCHERS CREATE CONCEPTUAL HIP HOP TIME MACHINEInner Peace Records and The Urban Music Foundation have collaborated with The University of Oxford’s ‘Science Together‘ programme (exploring what challenges can be overcome or opportunities seized by local community groups when they are given access to the world class skills, knowledge and resources of researchers) and In-Spire Sounds to present “EPOCH: Human Innovation and Response”. This project has been described as a ‘Conceptual Hip Hop Time Machine’. “From the spark of the first human-made fire, to the advent of […] VIEW MORE +AiKz & Third Degree – Antisocial – First ImpressionsOxfordshire based ‘AiKz‘ (pronounced ‘aches’, not ‘ikes’) teams up with producer counterpart ‘Third Degree’ (Sophisticated Apes, Reggiimental) for debut collaborative release ‘Antisocial‘; a title he attributes to being socially awkward and withdrawn from ‘social norms’, as well as representing the ‘aggy’ soundbed produced in this particular outing. This independent album comes after a six year hiatus following the solo AiKz release of ‘The Life and Times‘, the former comprising of a 13 track collection which is described as being ‘their […] VIEW MORE +Drowning in Syrup with TzusanIt was hard to get a read on Tzusan. “Is Pear Grove a real place?” I asked in reference to the name of one of his tracks. “No.” He responded. “No?” “No.” Okay, moving on. “What about that weird walrus looking thing on the album ar-“ “Yes! I love that weird walrus looking thing” he excitedly interjects, before diving into an extended diatribe about early colonisers’ impressions of exotic animals. Fresh off his latest release WSPSNSYRP, Edinburgh-raised and Brighton-based artist […] VIEW MORE +Load more