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!
