'Style stays sticking like a magnet'

I asked for experimental, Purevolume gave me these guys. And this band really is nothing if they're not experimental. Not much intro today, just listen

SLICK MANTRA

Woah woah woah did i read that right? 'Hip Hop/Jazz/Experimental'? I'm sorry but never in my life have i heard hip hop mixed with jazz. Ok so i know a lot of rappers take advantage of all kinds of classical music etc as a backing track to their music, but this is a jazz band who rap. A jazz band who rap. Honestly i'm not sure i can think of anything more amazing right now. It's almost how i got excited when i heard Gym Class Heroes were a band that sung hip hop melodies over drums an guitar (until i realise i didn't like them much at all) but this is a fucking jazz band. I'm speachless.
Actually the more i think about it the more i realise that this combination isn't as unusual as i previously though. R n B is traditionall blues music overlayed with a more hip hop like melody and that has been in popular for year and years, even if the original 'Rythme and Blues' was bastardized by changing the B to mean Base, but still the style has been around for a while. But the way these guys do things is just so unbelieavbly like nothing i've heard before. The first track 'Move out' is a perfect example. If you block out the lyrics and just focus on the backing instrumental, you could swear you were at a jazz club wearing pin stripe trousers and snapping your fingers in time with a saxophone. And then you listen to the whole thing and honestly the vocals work so unbelievably well with the instrumental, it's like jazz and hip hop were born to share the same stage.


I'll admit that the vocals could do with some work, but these guys are really on to something big here. You reach the piano solo at the end of the first song and are just thinking 'how the bloody hell did anyone ever come up with something this ridiculous? i mean come on, piano solos in a rap song? I'm at a loss for words.
And this carries on throughout the whole playlist. And it works all the way through. Not once did i actually think hang on, these lyrics and these instrumentals really don't belong together. And a band that can do something that awesome, deserves a hell of a lot of respect. Like i said before the rapping definately needs some work, but i can overlook that for the fact that the band themselves are bloody fantastic. The talent of the guys playing is amazing - they really could sit themselves down in a jazz club (without the vocals of course) and be loved just as much as anyone else - is seriously good. There's also something extremely bizarre about listening so toe-tapping jazz while someone raps over the top about doing drugs. Bizarre, but fantastic.

I thought this review would literally be me sticking my head out from a corner and shouting THIS BAND IS INSANE LISTEN NOW and that would be it. And i suppose in a long rambling way that's exactly what it has been. I'm still pretty overwhelmed to be honest, so i'm gonna go sit down and pray these guys get an album out quick.