Music Critic & Writer Sach Orenstein Emerges with Full-length Debut Beat Tape Son Raw vs. The Psychotic Hippies (self-released)

Sacha "Sach" Orenstein is a fellow writer and music critic based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Orenstein additionally moonlights as beat-maker, multi-genre musician, and Twitter personality Son Raw. It appears as though Son Raw has been reporting on and contributing to the intersection of Hip-Hop, Grime, Dancehall, and other beat cultures for the past 15 years. Sach Orstein is, likely, best known for his recurring features on Passion of The Weiss, but has, also, written for publications such as Fact Magazine and Complex UK. For those interested in booking Son Raw, he's currently available for podcast guest spots, interviews, DJ sets, Bar Mitzvahs, and... exorcisms!!?


Son Raw has been making music of his own for quite some time now, but it's unclear exactly when he started; Discogs lists just two releases, Son Raw & eGOn – Mellow Submarine (2017) and Take A Kayak, a self-released cassette from 2018. Son Raw's personal bandcamp page lists Take A Kayak under his discography section, as well as GR!$€1D@ - "Bricks" (Son Raw Old Skool Juke Edit,) which appears to be a remix of Griselda's 2019 single, "DR. BIRDS." Son Raw's Soundcloud page, however, only lists: "Son Raw, Sacha Orenstein, Montreal, Canada," along with some additional basic information, and contains no actual music.


Now, we've had this one in our possession for quite some time now, but today, it's become widely available to the rest of the music-loving world: Son Raw has shared his debut full-length project, Son Raw vs. The Psychotic Hippies. It's described within a companion press release as "an intersectional analysis covering the political ramifications of... actually, no, scratch that, it's a f***ing beat tape." So, again, for clarity's sake, it's a f***ing beat tape! Initially, fueled, like most creative efforts in recent memory, "by a feverish desire to escape the awfulness of Pandemic life while stuck in a terrible, cramped living situation." Son Raw vs. The Psychotic Hippies poses the question, "what if a beat-maker/critic who routinely mocks the past 40 years of Rock music, made a Rock album?"


Well, the accompanying answer, as Son Raw himself describes it, is "an acid-fueled romp through the hairiest, gnarliest, headbanging-est Proto-metal obscurities of the early 70's, as parsed through the dustiest and grimiest styles of contemporary Hip-Hop." It's definitely an interesting extremely well-executed listen through obscure Proto-metal, as filtered through the slightly jaded lense of a Hip-Hop critic. We can't speak much to the specifics as to how this was, actually, physically created (on a "beloved" SP-404 sampler sequencer) but it sounds impeccable and definitely boasts sonic allusions to J Dilla, Madlib, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, and The Roots. Plus, these song titles are truly somethin' else; falling somewhere in-between the utter silliness of Fall Out Boy and the hard-nosed bada$$ery of Wu-Tang Clan. Son Raw vs. The Psychotic Hippies was entirely produced, created, and orchestrated by Son Raw himself with additional mixing and mastering provided by Ini. Son Raw vs. The Psychotic Hippies is now available to purchase, stream, or download exclusively from Son Raw's Bandcamp page.