PICK OF THE WEEK
MUSH RECORDS SHOWCASE: CIRCUS, ANDRE AFRAM ASMAR, RADIOINACTIVE, ANTIMC, CURSE OV DIALECT, LISTENER

MUSH TOUR - "I cater to the nerves of wordsmiths / I'm here to preserve the weird and absurd in cowshit," blurts rhymesayer Radioinactive on "Name Forgetter." This line sums up the Mush Records' out hiphop aesthetic: never stand still artistically or geographically. Weirdness is its lifeblood.

They get bottom billing for this hot indie-hiphop show, but Australia's Curse Ov Dialect is worth getting there early. COD disorients your ass with wildly varied instrumental, vocal, and noise samples; their debut album, 'Lost In The Real Sky' (Mush), features conscious, weirdly flowing rappers spitting over kaleidoscopic backdrops more indebted to ethnomusicologists' libraries than to played-out jazz and funk vinyl. Imagine Public Enemy's Bomb Squad producers remixing Nonesuch's Explorer Series, and you're close to grasping COD's baffling methodology. This hiphop isn't left field; it's completely out of the ballpark.

DS