The music never stops coming, it’s just that sometimes a kind of escape from the routine is required – Jazz Hip Hop: Video, Photos

Summers in Athens mean two things among several others. Concerts and rastoni accompanied by musicians.

The period of inactivity brought about by the prolonged heat and the desolation of the city, usually entails visiting music outside the “main” flow of releases that we present on our web pages. No, the music never stops coming, it’s just that sometimes a kind of escape from the routine is required. Which, admittedly, personally speaking, in the summer months, seems unbearable.

This summer, in pure concert terms and always for the domestic data, had everything and we were duly honored, but you can read these alongside. One of the joys of Athens when it’s empty, even when the unprofitable reality leads you to dystopian staycation jokes, is that you can walk around it without the noise it permanently brings. Let it also help to organize your thoughts, pulling them out of the labyrinth in which they spin when you feel a stagnation surrounding you.

With the apartment buildings seeming like a concrete forest and the main streets of the center as an endless spiral interrupted by the appearance of some park – savior, I unexpectedly found hip-hop a faithful companion. When I didn’t breathe country air on a few-day getaway, the connection strengthened instead of weakening.

Our relationship goes back years, having had its ups and downs, intense comebacks and silent drifts, but as August comes to an end, I can say that the current rekindling has proven vital. In the dozens of walks and in every attempt to read a book, there were three fixed points of reference.

Wu-Tang Clan, MF DOOM and Kendrick Lamar. As for the Wu, let me not say that again. Always there, always sharp, iconoclastic, raw, timeless. My weaknesses are condensed into this 36-track Spotify playlist for anyone who cares. On the other hand, I have always had a more intimate relationship with the musical works of the blessed (still immortal) Daniel Dumile.

Records such as his debut, 1999’s “Operation Doomsday” or “Vaudeville Villain (2003, as Viktor Vaughn), his collaborations with Czarface (“Czarface Meets Metal Face”, 2018 & “Super What?”, 2001) and with Danger Mouse (“The Mouse And The Mask”, 2005) among others, they leave a feverish and enigmatic imprint behind their vocabulary and associative, humorous as well as dark, lyricism.

But at the top, as my most listened to album of the last quarter, is the iconic “Madvillainy”, the classic twenty-year-old collaboration between MF DOOM and Madlib, possibly the greatest hip-hop album of the 21st century. No matter how many years pass, time will stop anew with each listen, memories will be awakened, new levels will be discovered.

Its subdued, mid-tempo jazzy/psychedelic mood hides unbridled performances, emerging from the dark alleys of imagination and allegory, that haunt thoughts, but I’ll stop here because it deserves its own space Until then.

I think I could call this quarter Mr. Kendrick’s summer. Yes, I’m one of those who stuck with “Not Like Us”, probably the song of the year for me. No, you won’t read here some analysis/appropriation behind what’s being touched on in (winner) Lamar’s much talked about feud with Drake, but it’s not like we hear and don’t understand. But the thing about Lamar’s case is that after years the shocking “good kid, m.A.A.D. city” was brought up in my speakers and, Pagrati may not be Compton and the experiential themes from Lamar’s youth may not have many points contact, but you bring art to your own pace from a point on.

A record – proof of the thirst of a genius to turn the past into a fertile context for his future, accompanied a process of redefinition and changes. Whose darker and more introspective side was none other than his recent masterpiece, “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers”. Somewhere in the pauses, the silences and the half-finished sentences you find the end of the thread to unfold what you cannot pronounce but want to face. “Thanks for the rap, it makes it look so interesting,” says a soul from the north.

So the groundwork was laid early for a scavenger hunt of this year’s releases that would feed back into that internal communication. Suddenly, Lupe Fiasco’s “Samurai” was at the top of my favorites. The now veteran, created a dreamy and holistic smooth jazz rap project inspired by the idea of ​​Amy Whinehouse’s transformation(!) into a battle rapper. It won’t change your life, it will definitely make it better while it lasts. On the contrary, “Dark Times”, Vince Staples’ most introspective record (which I hope Nikos enjoyed at this year’s lavish OYA Fest), one of the best of his generation, and probably my favorite moment of the idiom this year, has no unnecessary moment and with his narrative skill he fights the sense of hopelessness and quagmire with stubbornness and inner search which proves redemptive.

Of course, deepening a certain feeling is tantamount to sharpening a tried and tested katana, but the replays revealed more colorful approaches. Mach-Hommy from Haiti is probably my favorite masked rapper of today, and the finale of his tetralogy called “#Richaxxhaitian” is at least on par with three years ago “Pray For Haiti” and this kaleidoscopic, philosophical and his socially sensitive style is demanding, but he wins every bet he places. Of the releases of the year, in general.

I’ve been listening to this year’s Rapsody album for a while, following her since she blew me away here. You see, my re-acquaintance with the genre didn’t happen ex nihilo. Admittedly, “Please Don’t Cry” surprised me, as it found the artist pushing her limits in different idioms and timbres, revealing more aspects of her psyche and character. But her courageous transcendence could not be missed, leaving a crucial mark on nightly readings that filled the time between difficult realizations.

Apathy’s comeback with “Connecticut Casual: Chapter 2” and ScHoolboy Q’s “Blue Lips” are probably the two records I insisted the most to be revealed to me. The reason, simple. At a time when my every immersion in music seemed demanding, I was confronted with records and musicians whose roots and structural elements seemed familiar but the result maintained distances. The hard imaginative but one-sided mapping of a world of the former in tension, and the multifaceted approach of the latter under a hypnotic serenity that exudes spark, two sides of the same coin. More traditional boom bap on the one hand, more modern productions on the other. In the end, I realized that especially in the early midnight hours, everything made sense, and the absorption became a pleasure.

I will conclude this review with two releases that I consider more related to the identity of the site. First up, we have Ireland’s new favorite ass-kids, Kneecap, who Antonis campaigned for me to listen to, and you hear Antonis recommending music. Their highly anticipated debut, “Fine Art”, featuring Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. (heard, huh?) has swept them all, the atheophobes made a movie too, and the true Irish politicized street banger they bring has a hardcore soul that touches, and makes the blood boil.

On the same wavelength, the experienced (and infamous) JPEGMafia released his most metal/hardcore oriented record, “I Lay Down My Life For You”. Unbridled, borderline avant-garde, caustic and ironic, gray but honest, experimental, bellicose, with hard guitars as well as completely psychedelic parts especially in the second half, the one known to Peggy’s fans, probably released the record that perfectly sums up a ten-year career in shadows of the underground and the ideal entry point into its stormy world. A shocking album capable of bringing you back to extreme listening and to paths you don’t want to leave behind. But for those, we will continue to see you in the review section. The quests do not stop, and the experience of a fellowship is capable of renewing vows of faith. It couldn’t have been otherwise.