ONE LINE TO AN ANGLE is refreshing and innovative!
Today’s musicians are so imbued with decades of influences that the art they produce is often hard to classify, and become harder by the day. R&B and rap have always held hands throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but in the increasingly technological age, a more industrial, techno and electronic sound has started to creep into hip-hop. The worlds of hip-hop and electronic music have coexisted on similar planes for years. Whether you talk about the art of tearing up clubs, or driving youth culture, electronic music and hip-hop often trade places as the top driver of youth trends. When the two genres unite there can be inspiring results. We are ONE LINE TO AN ANGLE, is one such Hip Hop Electronic music duo. David is an electronic music producer from Spain based in London, while his partner, Costi, is a British rapper born in London with Cypriot roots. The two met via the internet when David was looking for collaborations for a new track he had made. They currently have a 5-track, self-titled EP out.
The “One Line To An Angle” EP is a great representation of two worlds colliding and meeting somewhere awesome in the middle. The opening track, “Mission”, is a haunting, dense evocation of percussive synths. Built around a frenetic, stuttering beat, garlanded with a very slight atmospheric accouterment, Costi lets loose a stream of consciousness atop the soundscape.
With a snapping and repetitive bass pattern set above strange drum flourishes, “Grey” is a minimal and experimental beat that again allows Costi to do his thing undisturbed.
By the time you reach “Noisy”, it seems clear that David prefers to rely on minimal but abstract structures. Melodies and rhythms drift in and out of focus like specters in the night. Eventually, the tracks dissolve into bass dominated textures, with the subtle and distinct hiss of percussion always playing in the background.
All throughout David retains a firm grasp of the emotional subtleties of such willfully off-kilter music. The duo’s skill as curators of crossover sounds, taking an obscure music blend and styling it for the world to experience, is refreshing and innovative. Their ability to experiment and go outside of the norm only adds to their allure.
“One Line To An Angle” might not be everybody’s cup of tea, especially for the purists on either side of the genre mix. But for anybody who has their eyes placed firmly on music of the future, this will more than just make sense.
Hence it’s for those eclectic music lovers that the growling bass and somber forward momentum rap of “Loko” will be like will have your pupils dilated and heart rate accelerated. And on the off chance that you weren’t completely losing it during this track, the ensuing “Funk Off” will hold your attention while grabbing the spotlight with another bass twister.
Clocking in at under 20 minutes, this is a quick and convenient listen. It invites introspection and introduces a new side of Electronic Rap hardly heard before. The EP shows not only an authentic peep into a new unearthed sub-culture but it also shows an artist’s maturity and insight into what the future for the industry holds.
The ever experimenting One Line To An Angle is perhaps unwittingly changing the course of music sub-genres and we should be ready to follow them, waving our underground flags high.
