The Witzard

Fresh off an extensive Fall US tour with Nine Inch Nails & The Jesus & Mary Chain in support of Black Moth Super Rainbow 's latest effort, Panic Blooms , multi-instrumentalist and producer Thomas "Tom" Fec AKA TOBACCO has returned with Malibu Ken ; both a collaborative effort and newly-formed rapper/producer group with long-time touring mate and world-renown emcee Aesop Rock . TOBACCO & Aesop Rock , actually, first worked together on "Dirt" from Fec's 2008 anticon CD/DVD F*cked Up Friends . Later that same year, Aes & Tom "worked together" again on a mash-up/remix project called The Hood Internet vs. Tobacco & Aesop Rock "featuring" Breeze Brewin , Cage, Mr. Lif , The Mountain Goats' frontman John Darnielle, Zaid Maxwell , Camp Lo, Rob Sonic , and El-P. The Hood Internet 's Aaron Brink & Steve Reidell implemented a similar style on 2010's The Hood Internet X TOBACCO X Felt , remixing tracks fr...

Thanks in part to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater , Atmosphere were really one of the first Hip-Hop groups I discovered and got into on my own; It was right around the same time that Slug & Ant were gearing up to release Seven's Travels (2003) and Rhymesayers had licensed either "Trying to Find a Balance" or "The Keys to Life vs. 15 Minutes of Fame" for the board-driven gameplay. Atmosphere have released a steady string of Minnesota Boom-Bap albums ever since: You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having , When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, and The Family Sign . But in my eyes, nothing will ever live up to the near-perfect 19-track Seven's Travels . Slug has become something of an Underground Hip-Hop cult hero in recent years and even went as far as to self-proclaim Atmosphere as "The Bob Seger of Underground Rap" during a June Twitter exchange with fellow emcee, Flex Grossman ha. Now, roughly a month o...

Honestly, the only primary element missing from "Zero Dark Thirty" is pre-choreographed breaking [breakdancing]. But collaborators Aesop Rock , Coro , and Isaac Ravishankara really managed to do a pretty good job incorporating a few other Golden Age Hip-Hop elements: between that hard-hitting Boom-Bap rhythm, intricate lyrical pattern, and stop motion graffiti art backdrop. Comfortably seated on the ground, Aesop Rock laments about "brown grass both sides" and "sugar skulls in the rain," amongst other quote-ables. Coro simultaneously proceeds to paint and un-paint a series of beautiful/sinister graffiti pieces on the blank wall directly behind him. While Skelethon (July 10th) is Aesop Rock 's first solo release in nearly 5 years, he's remained far from silent during this "Lost Weekend" period... contributing to a wide array of side projects: Felt , The Uncluded , Hail Mary Mallon , Nike+iPod, 900 Bats , Jeremy Fish, etc. Skeleth...