Sensational and Unbuilt – Poiesis

Freshly minted Kyoto imprint Throughout comes out swinging with a plethora of tape releases (all in stock btw) and, topping the pile, this cold-as-ice collaboration between Jungle Brothers' Sensational and producer, Unbuilt. Sensational has made plenty of interesting, elastically-minded records over the past few years, and Poiesis is another worthy addition to that late-career run, a paranoid party-starter cast against a menacing greyscale backdrop of impressive dystopian grandeur. Sensational is undeniably charismatic, but the production is equally startling, at once fractured, blasted and dubbed out, a look at what might have happened if Blackest Ever Black had ever got round to putting out a hip hop record. Underground rap of late is littered with inventive left turns out to subvert form and function - from Ka to Earl to Niontay and so forth - but Poiesis reminds me most of that early Def Jux power buried beneath a ton of 21st century murky bleakness, like digital oil or a fossil from some future age. Not entirely our usual speed around here, but not not it either, and all the better for it.