Don't be fooled by the bland looking cover, Lost In The Real Sky is a melting pot of ethnic and just plain weird sounds combined with rapping and social commentary. Much of the lyrical content being about multiculturalism, but theres some introspective stuff too.
The music is pretty interesting, mone of the styles used are mainstream, and most of the time it works really well (only one song bombs for me). There's a few time changes throughout too, mainly between 4/4 and 6/8, but that's still something not all rap has.
Apparently most of the music on here was put together in fruity loops. Most tracks open with a short sample, some work well, and some are seemingly irrelevent to the song to follow.
Vocals are usually good, each vocalist has a different sound, I'm not sure who is who except for Vulk Makedonski, and I have a feeling Raceless is the rough voiced one. Vulk Makedonski is the most noticable. He is like the Geddy Lee of rap with his high pitched voice, which can be annoying at times, but he's very agile and punchy with his words and busts out big time in Curse Ov The Vulk Makedonski.
I couldn't do a track by track for this, there would be so much to write. I could do a few tracks as examples to give an example of the wide range of music on display.
You are first greeted in Baby, How? with piano, office stationery used as percussion, and time stretched doorbells as the basis of the music. It's a manic opener, and not exactly easy to listen to, but it fits together and showcases their ability to make some rather strange combinations sound good as music. The rapping is powerful, especially from Vulk Makedonski.
Shamans is about stolen land and a curse being placed on it, it's got some creepy music including what sounds like a 100 year man old growling, pan flute, and some cool glitchy drum beats.
Family Assorted is the hip hop equivalent of a Dream Theater song. 9 minutes long and very diverse in the music aspect, switching styles whenever the vocalists switch. It works for the most part, but it does sound a bit "cheap" in places.
Uzbeki Westerns, I have only started listening to this one properly in the last week or so, and it's quite interesting. Very dark, trippy, ambient at times. Some very creepy sounds drift in and out of this ghostly song. Interesting lyrics too, I can't make them all out, but where I can, they fit the music nicely.
The last track, Water Thicker Than Blood is carried by a simple bassline, water bells, a dribbly sound, flute, and very experimental orchestral style (think Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima if you know it). Lyrics are kind of disturbing, I think they are about being messed up in the head from abuse in the past, the music is so cold and unemotional here it's a bit of a worry. The music has a more sad, emotive feeling in the chorusy bits, which is a relief from the cold bit, but it's still sad.
The production on the album is pretty good, especially for a home job done by the band, so no complaints there.
Once again, the music is just so interesting, and the combinations just have to be heard to be believed. The way Curse Ov Dialect combine such contrasting styles and make them sound great (except Vertical Ascension, which I think sounds awful) is brilliant. Furthermore, some of the sounds they use as instruments (eg, laughter, a plate rolling, staplers and scissors) are so obscure, but work so well.
Rapping isn't my favourite style, but they do it pretty well. Lyrics are alright too, some are a bit dodgy sounding. KLike I said, it's the music that does it for me.
I would have to say the second half of the album is a lot better, there's a definite weak spot from tracks 3-7. There's a few fill in tracks, not that they are that bad, just easily skipworthy. It's not a short album either and there's plenty of ideas to go around.
I'd give it a 7.5/10, definitely needs a listen if you like strange music
Recommended songs if you like interesting music:
Baby, How?
Shamans
Uzbeki Western
If I Die
Water Thicker Than Blood
Recommended if you like rapping:
Baby, How?
Wolf Moon
Family Assorted
Curse Ov The Vulk Makedonski
I've only heard one track (Shamans) through the Other FL..I seem to think I was a bit too harsh on it, as I quite like it now. Thanks for introducing me to these guys.
