LONDON E1 93 FEET EAST
No-one does geek-rap better than Anticon -- a collective of Midwest bohemian college graduates who are currently making some of the weirdest, most inspirational hip-hop on earth.
Tonight, at this Mush records showcase, they work through a variety of incarnations, but the first of note is Boom Bip & Doseone. The former is an electronic soundscaper, scurrying between boxes and instruments to coax out sputtering loops and seismic vibrations; the latter, a skinny, camp rapper who walks onstage in a huge fluffy coat and silver anchor medallion in a bizarre parody of bling fashion. His flow is staggering, though--a dizzying rattle of free-association Dadaist poetry that sounds like a hallucinating auctioneer.
And if that's bent your mind, cLOUDDEAD should blow it. With Doseone joining up with cohorts odd nosdam and why?, this is essentially the Anticon all-stars. It's open mic therapy session for a roomful of schizophrenics, metaphors exploding into deft-tongued nonsense, elegiac drones shaking the foundations. Pretentiousness is cLOUDDEAD's sword, self-indulgence their shield. But gibberish seldom sounded so fantastic.
LOUIS PATTISON