Keem The Cipher Exploration, Opposite Box OBscene
Keem The Cipher
Exploration
(keemthecipher.bandcamp.com)
Keem the Cipher, delivers an engaging and powerful sound with his most recent experimental hip hop/instrumental LP release Exploration. The beautiful music that pours from the album is excellent on many levels, I love how it touches on that pure, original hip-hop sound, yet is congealed with Keem’s own unique and distinctive touch; it is refreshing.
The thought provoking beats and melodies are soul warming ear candy that could center the listener, and help them to focus their hearts and minds. Emotion and clarity blares from within the music in this album. It takes a deep individual to create instrumental music that can hold substantial weight, yet still sound amazing. It flawlessly flows and is absolutely captivating.
Love seems to be the undertone of all the tracks, and it’s apparent that Keem the Cipher understands the many facets of love, and knows how to pour it into his music. This style of music cannot come from any other place besides love (and soul).
The interludes which continue to focus on the base of the album (love) that are laced between the tracks are very insightful. The conversations that take place center around love, and the meaning of it. It shows that while there are many levels and meanings to love, he tries to demonstrate that just because one person fully understands the many angles of love, people will always have different viewpoints of it.
“IDK”, “What Is It”, “Where Is It” and “For How Much” all hold different interpretations of love While the album is phenomenal in its totality, and skipping tracks is totally unnecessary, a few of the tracks are unforgettable. The standout tracks “More than Ever”, “Bad/Perfect Timing”, “Nothing Like You” and “Make Me Better" are excellent, and all possess an authentic sound.
Exploration goes on the soundtrack to my life, and will keep a steady stream as a daily listen. It is perfect music for most situations, particularly when grounding and focus are in order. A Chattanooga artist producing that real hip-hop; imagine that.
Opposite Box
OBscene
(oppositebox.bandcamp.com)
Chattanooga’s Opposite Box recently unleashed their spellbinding new album OBscene, and it is awesome. Since it twists, turns, and bends genres, it isn’t easy to classify this album under one specific genre, so let’s try the very good funky music category.
With a jam band-esque feel to it, Opposite Box does a fantastic job of fitting a lot of sound into each track. An impressive mix of vocals, trombone, keys, guitars, drums, bass, and synth all fluently flow to make potentially the best album to come out of Chattanooga in the last decade.
The members of the band are stellar musicians that bring their own pizzazz to the group, which all comes together to deliver ultra-groovy music. My favorite thing about the album besides the rocking music is the effortless heart and soul that pours from it.
This album is a dance party waiting to happen, the music will get inside of the bones of the listener and take hold. It is very hard to sit still while their music is floating around in the airwaves, if not impossible.
The tracks mostly range between the eight to ten-minute mark without ever getting boring, dull, or redundant, it is stellar from tip to top. Each song on the album is a candidate for the featured song on the album, so it is hard to pick a standout. I will say that my personal favorites are “Afternoon Sex”, “Anteater Molly”, and “Creatures”.
OBscene is an instant classic, and a powerhouse display of the state of the music scene in Chattanooga. If ChattTown was not already consistently in discussion as a music mecca, this album would put it on the map. It truly speaks for itself, and holds that it sound that separates the sheep from the wolves. Give this local album a listen, and look for this phenomenal band to hit the household nationwide scene in the very near future.