Edinburgh Hip Hop Round-up

What hope is there for the local scene after Triptych billed Buck65 as a "gasoline-swigging 50 Cent"? Even if The Wire described Edinburgh as the "perfect hip hop city", it feels like any party boy can rock a crowd of people who aren't really listening. The group they were referring to, the Penpushers, should be tucked up in a studio somewhere, completing their trilogy, but instead it seems that there are just too many musical avenues for them to explore, and that their influence might be turning the Edinburgh scene into one of the most interesting in the UK. Remember it's innovation that makes a scene, not pointless rivalry.

One off-shoot is Lost Love Launch who break free from the narrowmindness of hip-hop spitting spite, love, paranoia and sing-song over a brew of hip-hop, electronica and prog-doodlings. The EP 'Mud on my Face' is available from KFM Records, and hopefully shows will follow so keep a look out this month. Another Incorporeal related project are Awkward Vessel, centred around Obselite's collaborations with local weirdo alchemists, Merznacht. Currently performing a series of improv sessions at the club night, they create dense slabs of ambient electronic post-jazz over which MCs Obselite and Harlequinade wax ecstatic and paranoid. An EP should be available over the Festival, and in the meantime they perform hidden sets at Edinburgh's home for outerlimit hip-hop and altered reggae, Merznacht. So don't just hear that something's hip-hop and throw you're hands in the air, listen and trip. Funny looking rappers is where it's at, man. erznacht at The Left Bank.