Quick Hitters:: soso & DJ Kutdown

As we criss-cross back and forth across the country for our Great Canadian Mixtape Project, we've done our darnedest to include some quality hip hop on each mix. That process has resulted in discovering lots of good albums from the large pool of hip hop talent we have in this rock-loving country of ours. A prime example of this is the instrumental album from soso & DJ Kutdown entitled All They Found was Water at the Bottom of the Sea. soso & Kutdown were kind enough to let us use a song from the album for our Saskatchewan mix (soso is a proud Sask. representative, Kutdown is from Winnipeg), but I thought the album was deserving of a little extra shine.

I say that mainly because it's a striking, beautiful piece of work. There's a nautical theme running throughout the album, with sound effects and vocal samples that reflect that, but it's the music itself that creates a palpable sense of desolation. soso and Kutdown made this album a truly collaborative effort, with soso providing the melody & arrangements, and Kutdown on the drum tracks. The two share an "appreciation for beautiful samples and drums that smack", and it seems they've found a formula that works. The atmospherics of the seven tracks drawn you in, and the drums rattle you to your core - it's good stuff.

The album is short but, there's plenty of highlights - the strummed guitar and razor sharp drums on All Ties Cast Off, the title, ominous strings and spacey scratches of Like Old Folks Like Rain, the mournful violin and seagulls of Under The Yoke, and the drums at the start of For Anything I Know, which sound like they are being played off a broken boombox. Unfortunately, unless you live in Japan, you'll have to wait to get yourself a copy of this album. Hue records in Japan released the record earlier this month, but here's hoping soso and Clothes Horse Records will put it out here too.