Maasai – Maasaï

Casting way back to the 2nd of November 2015 saw the birth of Canned Static music blog with our very first review from Canadian rapper SHAM (check out SHAM – Fast Life Cafe). The lyrical wizardry of SHAM first came to my attention with the Illmatic influenced Street Tape. Other releases include Chains of Freedom & LOST. Since the 2015 release of LOST we literally did loose sight and sound of SHAM the man until now.

June 2019, enter Maasai, an electronic experimental Hip Hop duo from Montreal featuring Emmanuel Dusautoir (Drums) & SHAM (Vocals).

Freaking wow, this is very different from what I expected. It has all the hallmarks of a ‘Fast Life Cafe’ but with so much more edge. It’s a musical roller coaster that crashes and explodes but keeps going, you’re on for the ride and don’t wanna get off. It’s dark and light, good & bad ass.

Opening with ‘I woke Up’, a minimal experimental rap with sparse bass, “I woke up in the morning in a bag of roaches, I know death approaches”, “I just wanna blow my mind”. Sets out the feel of the entire album, rebellious, abstract and out there in head space.

‘Astro Trip’ hits a tribal feel with a subtle swelling bass drone (another thing I’m diggin with this album… the subtle bits in the backdrop), its originality is rife and I just wanna keep it spinning. The spirit of Maasai is here, the tribal feel is just brilliant. ‘Lion’ follows in the same spirit, the African Maasai tribe would dance to this in their PJ’s, I love it and can’t get enough

Maasaï the album & band need to be seriously checked out. Real just got more real, go and grab this fantastic release over on Bandcamp, it’s a steal at a mere $5, also if you are in the Montreal area look out for these guys live.

Steam or Download Maasai on BandCamp

 

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SHAM – Fast Life Cafe

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Sham is a man from Montreal, that we know and he is also a bit of an enigma in the music scene. Stage, studio or rolling his thing down on the subway is all in a stride, there are many sides to Sham but all pulling in the same direction. His previous release “Mix Tape” featured the track “Bullet”, take it from me, that is one bullet you wanna take in the head. From that point on I’ve always known Sham has bucket loads of talent & this latest release strengthens my judgement ten fold, in fact it excels in every way.

Opening title track welcomes all to the Fast Life Café – a soul is laid bare to the World, a World of pain and pleasure, depends what you want, guns, bomb, girls, under and over the counter drugs that gets you so high you’ll crack the ozone. This is a lyrical magician at work who conjures his genius throughout the album with amazing twists and contrasts. This album has been on loop in my car, my stereo & my personal player for 5 solid days. To pick a stand out track for me is difficult but if push comes to shove it has to be “Dream Chaser”. I’m just chasing a dream stuck in-between, where I wanna go and where I’m sick of being. Keep chasing that dream Sham because people like you are few and far between and deserve to be living that dream.

If you’re gonna go and get an album this week then make sure it is this one. Available to download at Bandcamp. It’s a Pay what you want deal but above all just get it on loop

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