ASM has dropped their new album titled ‘Blue Cocoon’. The first track, ‘Marathon’ came as a complete surprise to me. Almost anti-climatic, the track actually fits almost perfectly as to signify the slow burn that ‘Blue Cocoon’ achieves as an album. that burn continues through as an eventual crescendo that encapsulates the album and gives that sense of ascension to the listener that feels earned by the time ‘Blue Cocoon’ concludes.
The samples are welcome obscurity that combines retro-bliss in concert with the style of the album in this modern time of isolation.
With a more stripped sound and simple direction, ASM embraces these new set of nostalgic hooks while moving forward in a musical progression that gives an optimism desperately needed that’s rarely spoken.
Get ‘Blue Cocoon’ HERE.
Check out our other articles featuring ASM HERE.
About ‘Blue Cocoon’
Written, composed, and recorded entirely during the quarantine period of spring 2020, when the earth was a blue cocoon.
Nature flourished, and the human species was confined to inertness, reflecting and taking stock. This is ASM’s contemplation on their own path and that of the world around them through the lens of suspended isolation.
Historically anchored in the boom bap tradition, ASM’s new sonic direction on Blue Cocoon is stripped down to raw soul loops with emphasis on rhyme craft and vivid lyrical imagery, sprinkled with retro sci-fi cuts. Stylistically, it leans on the minimal loop-digging movement of recent productions by Madlib, The Alchemist, or Jay Electronica, while showcasing the purest essence of their unique identity and personality.
The content oscillates between apocalyptic dread and hopeful exaltation.
Lyrically, this is ASM’s most sophisticated and artistically mature output to date, a seminar on how to grow older in the hip-hop paradigm with class and grace.
About ASM
With 4 critically acclaimed full-length albums and over 600 shows in 25 different countries under their belt, ASM have established themselves as one of the pre eminent hip hop acts in Europe today. Their unique brand of sophisticated, ultra-lyrical boom-bap fusion continues to serve as a refreshing reminder that hip hop can be fun, artistically ambitious, and intelligent.
Principally composed of MC’s Green and FP and DJ/Producer Fade aka RHINO, this international trio of friends from high school (one Canadian, one German, one English) first gained international recognition from their collaborative singles with Wax Tailor: “Positively Inclined” & “Say Yes”, and have since collaborated with the likes of Chinese Man, MF DOOM, Deluxe, La Fine Equipe, and many more.
Featured image by Damien Chamcirkan.
LINKS:
https://www.chinesemanrecords.com/asm
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https://twitter.com/ASMastateofmind
https://www.instagram.com/asm_astateofmind
https://www.youtube.com/user/ASMastateofmind
