Tzusan – Ponzu
Ponzu, another dose of depressive abstract hip-hop from Edinburgh's Tzusan, is less dystopian and more a commentary on the human condition
Edinburgh rapper and producer Tzusan is often described as making 'dystopian' music due to its dark themes and suffocating production. But he gives the game away on the blurb for his latest project in which he invokes the late author Mark Fisher, who famously wrote of what he termed "capitalist realism". That in mind, Ponzu isn't an otherworldly exercise; it's hyper-modern prose. Rapping with his trademark lethargic flow, Tzusan depicts hazy house parties in brutalist cities, where drugs and hedonism are the only relief from the mundanity of contemporary life. The familiar intonation of a ScotRail announcer pops up at one point. Oh, and it's probably raining.
Tzusan is hardly reinventing the wheel – his stream-of-consciousness rhyming style draws heavily from UK hip-hop titan Ed Scissor, who pops up on album highlight Post Hoc – and his intimate, breathy delivery can distract from the intensity of the vision he wants to present. His technical gifts are undeniable, though. Few Scottish emcees are as gifted as Tzusan at delivering complex, internal and multisyllabic rhyme patterns over such haphazard beats, whether it be disembodied drum'n'bass (Post Hoc) or syncopated techno (The Girl With the Dragonfly Tattoo).
Listen to: Ponzu, Post Hoc, The Girl With the Dragonfly Tattoo