Kobra Audio Labs - 'Sunshine, Shadows & Luck'

The first half of 'Sunshine, Shadows & Luck' is dark and twisted, the scuzzy beats wrapped around themselves, paranoid and twitchy. Opener El Cordobes is built around a twanging country guitar riff and blues chanting, the beats textured, cymbal-heavy. The spy-movie horns and Shadow-like drum patterns of Down To The Dozens rock hard, upping the tempo, and the half-built menace of the Mysterons-sounding Spectreville is awesome and disturbing in equal measure. K.A.L. then relents on the darkness somewhat - the dub-heavy textures of We Have The Strength But We Don't Have the Will are almost soothing. Stay Up All Night (and Talk Shit With Me) is suitably sleep-starved and wistful, and album closer American Teeth is serenely calm. The production values on KAL's debut LP are universally high, and although undeniably a slow burner, this is an accomplished album of emotionally involving instrumental hip-hop that will have lasting appeal for fans of downbeat tracks by Shadow, Portishead, or RJD2. [Omar Kudos]