Music: Urthboy - Smokey's Haunt (2012)

Urthboy - Smokey's Haunt (2012)
Australian Hip Hop

Urthboy is a machine! Not only does he run the awesomely successful Elefant Traks but he's also part of Australian Hip Hop super group, The Herd. On top of the six albums released by The Herd - one of which was just last year - Urthboy has four brilliant albums of his own! Talk about a man on a mission! I don't think any of us really expected him to release another album this year but here we go, how lucky are we?

And that's not all! On top of all the albums and managing and goodness knows what else, he's been touring for half the year with The Herd on the Future Shades tour, then there was the quick Naive Bravado tour in celebration of the first single from this album.... and I'm pretty sure he'll be back to travelling around Australia again very soon to tour the entire album. I have to say, this guy is amazing live! I've seen him countless times now and with Jane Tyrrell and El Gusto backing him up on stage, his flow is as tight as you would expect from a veteran like Urthy and the atmosphere on stage and in the crowd is jumping. Every. Single. Time. Oh, and he always has great supports such as The Last Kinection, Horrorshow, Hermitude, Mantra and many more!

At number twelve on the Australian Urban charts - Triple J's feature album this week - Smokey's Haunt features the ever present and always fabulous Jane Tyrrell, Aussie R&B singer Daniel Merriweather, folk singer Bobby Flynn, Alex Burnett of Sparkadia, plus hip hoppers such as Delta, Solo of Horrorshow and Jimblah. There are also a couple of people I haven't heard of before; Texture Like Sun and Ev Jones. What an eclectic mix of blues, folk and hip hop! I love it!

Highlights for me have to be On Your Shoulders ft. Solo and Jimblah and Calling Cards ft. Texture Like Sun & Ev Jones. This album has the usual comfortable Urthboy bounce feeling and even though I haven't had the chance to listen to the lyrics properly, I just know there is going to be some word gems in there. Urthy's style of smart hip hop is one of the reasons I love this genre so much.

Go Buy It! Check out Dr Seuss Meets Elefant Traks at the Sydney Opera House!

4 out of 5 Cat in the Hat's...

[Bonus]

Smokey's Haunt cover art is by the multi-talented Jane Tyrrell! Check out some of her stuff here!

Music: Seth Sentry - This Was Tomorrow (2012)

Seth Sentry
Australian Hip Hop

If you know anything about this guy, then you know how long we've all waited for this album to come out. The short 5 track Waiter Minute EP released in 2008 is one of the best EPs I have in my collection. It still gets solid play in my house. So what took him so long, I hear you asking. Well, besides Seth being extremely Lazy (as you can see here) and an addictive gamer, he's pretty much a damn perfectionist!

Since getting the EP, I've had the extreme pleasure of seeing Seth live four or five times. You can see some of my crappy home videoing here: Waitress Song, Our Song w. Horrorshow. Having seen him so many times, I've had the pleasure of hearing some of these songs already; such as Campfire, My Scene and Room for Rent which has some amazing lines and a punchy sound. Material for the next single? I think so!

Float Away (above) gets stuck in my head really badly, almost as badly as Waitress Song and Train Catcher off the EP... on this album I can hear myself singing Room For Rent over and over and the hook to Ten Paces will be another one of those tunes that will never leave my brain again. The sweet croony tunes of Ali Barter (who I had to go and look up after hearing, found this!). Ali is the only real feature on this album, besides some back up vocals from Grey Ghost and Leon Thomas, but in saying that, the behind the scenes guys are some names you've probably heard before; Trials (Funkoars), Matik and Mantra.

I love Seth's laid back style of rapping, he makes it sound so effortless, but then I have to actually listen to his tracks to pick up some golden one liners such as "I see the Devil in a short skirt, hot as hell." - Ink Blot Test.  Also, the album art by Jagi is amazing!

This review pretty much wrote itself. So excited to have this album, glad it's doing so well! Try not to take as long for the next one, eh Seth? Ha! Buy it here!

4 out of 5 nerds...

"On the one hand there's low rent, on the other you'll wonder where your clothes went. It's simple the house is a fish bowl. The wow factor, wow what a shit hole. The Mansion. I just came to say goodbye 'cause the room for rent was, mine..." - Room For Rent