Adian Coker:
Young World:
Self via Bandcamp: http://adiancoker.bandcamp.com/album/young-world-mixtape
Out now:
★★★★
This is Londoner Coker's second mixtape in 12 months, the follow-up to his triumphant debut set of bangers that was (and still is) 'Lights Fantastic' and a continuation of small budget and big sounds from the young rapper. Rather than bow to fashion and bore the tits off us with skittery glitchy electro grime (yaaawn), Coker ramps up the drum-beats Premier or Kanye-style, pumps up the crowd with thoughtful lyrics and harmony-filled choruses and errs on the side of big neck-snapping snare-sounds and old-skool backdrops that recall the '90s but in a good way.
Of the eleven tracks, 'Cream', current single 'Suicide Drive' and 'Vitriol' have been aired online long enough to garner nearly 10,000 listens, but it's the new ones that really impress. Centrepiece 'Dream' starts like an old '80s Chicago piano-house anthem before morphing into a beatless soul-tinged exercise featuring the Terry Callier-like vocals of Josh Osho, while the eerie joint 'Eyes Closed' has more than an element of down-beat Moby about it, retaining a soundtrack best suited to caning loudly on headphones on a night-bus, rather than radio (and that's a good thing). It's a killer. Hit? If only. Another expressive soul-boy vocalist called MEDI headlines the wonderfully woozy 'Real To Me', making this perhaps the track crying out for some playlist love.
In truth, as with 'Lights Fantastic', there is much to recommend Adian Coker's somewhat left-field style which is 90% British, a little bit European and a wee bit United States in construction.
What is really refreshing is his attitude to music - rather than greed things up, this album, like its predecessor, is FREE to download from the link above - but for how long? No flim-flam, no sell-out, just straight-up honest widescreen hip-hop from London's South East.
Young World:
Self via Bandcamp: http://adiancoker.bandcamp.com/album/young-world-mixtape
Out now:
★★★★
Of the eleven tracks, 'Cream', current single 'Suicide Drive' and 'Vitriol' have been aired online long enough to garner nearly 10,000 listens, but it's the new ones that really impress. Centrepiece 'Dream' starts like an old '80s Chicago piano-house anthem before morphing into a beatless soul-tinged exercise featuring the Terry Callier-like vocals of Josh Osho, while the eerie joint 'Eyes Closed' has more than an element of down-beat Moby about it, retaining a soundtrack best suited to caning loudly on headphones on a night-bus, rather than radio (and that's a good thing). It's a killer. Hit? If only. Another expressive soul-boy vocalist called MEDI headlines the wonderfully woozy 'Real To Me', making this perhaps the track crying out for some playlist love.
In truth, as with 'Lights Fantastic', there is much to recommend Adian Coker's somewhat left-field style which is 90% British, a little bit European and a wee bit United States in construction.
What is really refreshing is his attitude to music - rather than greed things up, this album, like its predecessor, is FREE to download from the link above - but for how long? No flim-flam, no sell-out, just straight-up honest widescreen hip-hop from London's South East.