“[C]’est un réel plaisir de retrouver ce flow nonchalant sachant s’adapter à n’importe quel rythme.” – Indie Rock Magazine

New review of Kaboom Atomic x The Dirty Sample’s 2 Cents by Indie Rock Magazine with two different view points.

TRANSLATION:
Rabbit: The historic label behind the beginnings of Sixtoo and Buck 65, to which we owe the more recent launch of the Backburner collective and its various satellite projects, most of which remain faithful to the label, Toronto’s Hand’Solo Records regularly offers interesting Canadian indie rap, with some fine headliners including producer The Dirty Sample. Associated here with the rapper Kaboom Atomic, whose ironic, deadpan writing is matched by an equally distinctive, nasally flow that should quickly sort out those who like it from those who don’t, the author of last year’s irresistible Beats To Murder Rappers 2 is less dark (with a few exceptions, cf. the eerie bass and other dissonant violins on It’s On Us), more playful and relaxed (Are You High? with its Tachichi airs, or the funky It’s Been Hijacked), without abandoning its cinematic overtones (the keyboards of Don’t Bother, the deliquescent atmosphere of It’s Worse Every Year, the haunted backing vocals of I’m Your Least Favourite Rapper), his Asian incursions (the flute on I Don’t Expect You To Get It) or his taste for offbeat beatmaking (Ashes with its bursts of unstructured beats and chopped samples bordering on glitch, as well as You Ain’t It, I Ain’t So Proud Anymore or the superb conclusion I’ll Deal With This Later).

Namor: A leading exponent of indie rap from Canada, Kaboom Atomic has been on the rap scene since the early 2000s, and his new album comes as something of a surprise to me, as I’ve lost interest in the man’s work. And it’s a real pleasure to rediscover his nonchalant flow, which adapts to any rhythm. I wouldn’t say the same for The Dirty Sample’s prods, which make the rapper’s performance a little pointless as they seem so flat and don’t always do justice to the MC’s elastic diction. The whole thing lacks a bit of rough edges for my taste, even if the “simpler” beats recall the finest hours of the indie scene that Kaboom helped shape (It Ain’t Me, I Ain’t So Proud Anymore, It’s On Us).