XRABIT & DMG$ - Hello World

Rap producers are often guilty of selling their souls at the altar of the recording studio, gladly embracing the mixing desk as a means to tweak their artists until they sound like rapping automatons ready to be reeled off the major label production line. XRABIT + DMG$ certainly rhyme with the best of them, and cover all the usual bases (why they're cooler than everyone else, 'bitches' shaking their 'asses'- yawn) but do so against a backdrop of bleeps and clicks more akin to a 16-bit gaming console than the usual R'n'B tropes. Perhaps this is down to budget concerns - they do say that necessity is the mother of all invention - but this album is all the better for it. So whether or not you want to join the party they invite us to - the venue being “in their pants” - at least they're make a cliché sound interesting, bless 'em. [Ewen Millar]