Tobacco - La Uti EP
- Written by Richard Seddon
Damn I wish I was cool. I wish I could listen to this E.P. with permission but I can’t, it’s just too cool for me. Maybe in the safety of my headphones I could get away with it, with the volume down so the dirty bass growl doesn’t permeate out into the ether as an annoying tinny sound, then I’d be rumbled. Seriously, this EP is so cool it’s enough to make a white man in his thirties not know how to walk while listening to it, ‘I don’t want to walk in time to the music because that would look tragic, but it’s so close to the tempo of my steps, argghh!”
I’ve made my point, La Uti is cool, it delivers three brand new tracks and four considerable reworkings, all featuring guest raps from a cross-country, cross-crew lineup of hip-hop misfits. It sounds like it’s been recorded on second hand equipment in someone’s bedroom, this is lo-fi hip hop… damn I wish I was cool but I’m not - I’m just listening to this, pretending I am.
Things kick off with the familiar rhythmic crunch of ‘TV All Greasy’ but this time APC’s Beans kicks things off with an alliterative salvo, adding his own odd imagery to the analog beat stew. Likewise, ‘Lick the Witch’ gets worked over by Def Jux’s Rob Sonic, while Baltimore resident and Wham City associate Height lays down some lyrical boom-bap over ‘Sweatmother.’ Maniac Meat’s ‘Unholy Demon Rhythms’ gets the strangest rebirth, here featuring the Mooninite-style toasting of a mysterious entity known only as Icicle Frog.
If you’re cool, you’ll be able to nail a walk to coincide listening to this on your iPod (other mp3 players are available) in public. If, like me, you’re so not cool, you can just pretend to be while listening to it at home, with a mug of hot chocolate - put a drop of Bailey’s in there if you’re feeling risky.