Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

It seems these days that unless you’re peddling some sort of glitch-hop, hyphy, crunk, grime or dub step, you’ve fallen behind the times in the world of hip-hop. Yet the indigenous rhapsody of Minneapolis duo Atmosphere remains somehow impervious. With When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, Slug and Ant have created a potent fusion of synthesized funk with third person narratives; each song a vivid, thought-provoking depiction of everyday struggle which leaves the more typically introspective ego of Slug firmly in the rear-view. Highlight track You is the grown up, uber-infectious, spiritual sequel to Canibus and Biz Markie’s Shove This Jay Oh Bee, travelling incognito as a pounding club banger. Your Glasshouse is the morning after: “All we need is because, come and party with us,” Slug sarcastically mutters, flanked by the unmistakable howl of Tunde from TV on the Radio. Elsewhere, Tom Waits phones one in on the penultimate track, but such minor criticisms are futile when Atmosphere already sold it. [Dave Kerr]