North Carolina producer L’Orange continues to develop and expand his signature sound, moving into the atmospheric, ethereal world of time and space. His musical companion for the journey is legendary Ultramagnetic frontman and perpetual innovator Kool Keith.
Their new collaborative record is about a man in the early 20th century who is a bored explorer and finds technology to take him into the future – but he goes without any sense of adventure. He travels through time as if he is traveling to Tuscaloosa. He is then hospitalized as insane and goes into suspended animation (a metaphor for his subconscious while sedated in the hospital). The adventure begins for him as he escapes this world. An absurdist look into the sci-fi world.
Released on Mello Music Group, Time? Astonishing! is the latest dimensional warp from hip-hop’s premiere astral traveler. His union with MMG producer L’ Orange finds him exploring uncharted terrain: choppy volcanic rock planets, ice glacier moons, new surgical procedures, and fresh rappers to toss into the ether. The scalpel remains eternally sharp.
L’Orange & Kool Keith set out to make something absurd, yet traditional, putting the Ultramagnetic MC in a position to rap over beats that fans have wanted to hear him on for years. Joining the team is a cast of legendary rappers to create a diversity of talent. The album is a loose tale of a time traveler, moving only forward through time, settling in the future and living as he would normally. The album seems to imply that adventure is only a step away, but never seems to reach that point. It’s an abstract and absurdist approach to working with an absurdist MC.
Yet there’s a sense of tradition within the playfulness. The beats glow with radioactive grit. Hard enough to knock from your car speakers, cinematic and plutonium-propelled enough to transport you to strange terra firma. Buck Rodgers movie serials meet boom-bap. And along for the odyssey are a cast of the best underground MC’s of the last decade: Blu, Open Mike Eagle, Mr. Lif, J-Live, and more.
The record, Time? Astonishing!, is out today.
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